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Willravel, I suspect there is a very big state to state difference in health care costs, and that the differences will be very closely related to the degree and kind of regulation. This isn't my area of expertise - I'm more of a well-read amateur here, so I can't get my fingers on my sources quickly - but I seem to recall that here in NY, where Local 1199 pretty much owns the Legislature, it is pretty much illegal to offer low-cost, few-featured health care policies. IIRC, the justification is that it's not right for some people to get significantly better coverage than others for something as important as health care. In other words, rather than offer choices of Chevys, Buicks, Toyotas and Audis, everyone has to drive a Mercedes or BMW whether they want to or not. Typically asinine NY law, with the result that Medicaid is now out of control, because the slack has to be picked up somewhere. I wish I could remember where I read that.
Part of the problem with the claim that we can do French-style health care here is that the US has a different culture. We are very individualistic, and all of us think we're important enough to deserve the best. There's nothing stoic or fatalistic about Americans. That means many denials of benefits will result in litigation, with the results that there will be lots of settlements, and ultimately costs will go blasting through any estimates. You'll have everyone travelling business class in no time, because no one will feel they are footing the bill themselves.
It's the convergence of a bunch of factors that makes single payer health care problematic in the US. And that's before even considering the philosophical issues, which I think you and I will probably disagree about, but which ultimately are matters of taste more than anything else.
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