I think $3 out of every $10 collected in insurance premiums goes to paying for the insurance company to run & take profits. A medicare pay-in model would right off the bat reduce individual health insurance costs by 30%. Add some tort reform and electronic medical record mandating to reduce doctor operating costs ($20k-25k/yr for a malpractice premium for most lower risk specialties). Then get some government mandate going to get rid of the AMA cartel on limiting the # of doctors coming into these professions, allowing medical schools to take more students.
Then create a plan where the government gives student loans to an aspiring doctor for medical school that it will forgive when 10 years of service in a government hospital is served. Their salary at the 10 yr service period is capped, but their liability is limited. As well, you can not sue the hospital, as it is government operated. Bad operation, tough luck. The best doctors still differentiate themselves by their service, and can go to a private hospital for "richer" people after 10 years. Make these the only hospitals that expensive categories of care can use (seniors who suck the system dry to live another 6 months, and high risk groups - overweight sedentary, obese, etc who do not fulfill exercise programs). The cost side is contained as the doctors are on a fixed government payroll, and then you know people who don't fulfill a prevention-oriented healthcare routine will have to settle. This way those that just don't take care of themselves are not a financial burden on the rest of society.
The wealthy and fat can self-pay outside this system.
This way everyone has access to health care, and those who aren't happy with the quality can opt out and self-pay.
No reason a fundamental non-bankrupting level of care can't be made available to everyone.
I also believe government funded medical research should enable the government to claim patent ownership and creation of any drugs that result be mandated not-for-profit ... Again, keeps drug costs low. Anyone who claims government funded research is inefficient or unproductive is idiotic ... The Internet is a product of government research, etc.
There's absolutely no reason public health care needs to be a bankrupting proposition. Any solution should be all about moving health care cost curves to the right, moving health care demand curves to the left, and finding ways to put maximum willingness to pay OUTSIDE insurance systems.