Krugman, let me tell you a story from my youth. (he reads this blog, right?)

when i got to grad school, the school had a policy that every student had to prove they had health insurance, or buy one of the student plans, in order to register. not a stupid idea, on its face. but of course not all of us were trustifarian legacy admits, and the student plan was really fucking expensive, like, 20% of my stipend. i just couldn't afford it. so i took a copy of an old form from when i was covered under my family insurance, and just photocopied it, using some white out to change the dates of when the plan "applied" to me. i made it thru the last four years of my phd program totally uninisured. the funny thing was, a couple of times i had to go see my primary care provider, i mean 'ER room,' during that period. oddly, despite the fact that the ER was part of the same hospital system as the student ghetto clinic, they never caught me, or the fact that i didn't really have any insurance. in truth, they didn't care if i died. the whole "all our students have health care" crap was total PR bullshit for the university.

i have a friend active in MA politics. she tells me that basically, the MA mandatory system is failing in large part due to people like me, doing what i had to do. sometimes, it's easier and more "economical" (a word the poor have very different terms for, btw) to just, well, lie. and so some do. that doesn't make the cost to society as a whole go away. but whatever bullshit system is set up that requires i give more money i don't have to a bailed out insurance/banking/corporate Behemoth, well, you can probably guess i'll go out of my way to avoid that. i need it more than they do. i survived grad school, i'll survive this. or, not.

Medicare for everyone seems the most obvious plan.
I am a healthy person on medicare. They ding me every month for the insurance. It's reasonable insurance at a reasonable cost, although I could certainly use the money to eat a little better. They ding me for the drug plan too.
By the time I pay the deductible on the doctor visit the year has gone by and it starts again. Each month I pay thirty dollars to save five dollars on a bottle of thyroid pills.
Still, it is an excellent plan that will actually be there if I need more care. Why should I mind the bit I pay going to the care of others. It will be there should I need it.

Were it a private insurance plan it would be neither affordable nor reliable.
Makes the world of difference.