It's pretty simple math. The U.S. pays 2x the (nationally) for health care for comparable (and usually a more poorly ranked) level of care.

The U.S. ranks relatively poorly -- near the bottom of the industrialized countries -- on almost every measure of performance. The only exception are measures where simply paying unlimited amounts of money into your care will get you something.

If we can move cost down from 20% of GDP (or whatever the figure is), to a level that everybody else enjoys, like 10% of GDP, we'll have realized a very large savings at a national level. Even if the cost of the program grows north of all estimates.