Government officials find something popular, promise unlimited amounts of it to get votes, then create a program to deliver it with total disregard for economic consequences.
Last decade they bought votes with easy mortgages. After all, even an idiot could see that home ownership was a sound investment. They won two or three rounds of elections with mortgage policy.
This decade it is health care for all! Even an idiot can see that health care for everyone is a sound investment. Just look at these scary charts of runaway growth of medical costs. And the votes roll in.
In reality, most health care consists of vaccines, blood pressure pills, diabetes pills, and the occassional antibiotics. That gives most of the benefits and costs almost nothing.
Most of the costs come from ludicrous end-of-life procedures on old people, most of the rest comes from ludicrous $500k courses of treatments for this like multiple sclerosis and stage 29 recurrent cancer. These are lifestyle choices for well-off people who would rather pay a doctor than leave an inheritance.
Trying to extend this lifestyle to every waitress will destroy the economy. It's no different than last decade's plan to put every hairdresser in a $700k mansion.