Do you know what pay-as-you-go means? Do you understand how these programs work?
Sure, it's quite simple actually. For decades, Social Security was bringing in more than it was paying out, and congress was perfectly happy to spend that surplus like drunken sailors. But now the trend is reversing, and the "lockbox" is nowhere to be found. SS and Medicare worked great when you had 1/2 dozen or more workers paying in for each person receiving benefits. The WW2 generation got a great deal, receiving far more in benefits than they ever paid into those systems. But that's not sustainable with an aging population, and pay as you go isn't going work going forward as the trend reverses and more and more of those baby-boomers retire.
I can agree that all citizens are entitled to basic health care; but I don't agree that they're "entitled" to free doctor's visit, free prescription drugs, and cutting edge diagnostics and treatments at the drop of a hat. It's just not realistic, which is why most single-payer systems are plagued with waiting lists and rationing.
The real problem with our health care system is the way the true costs are hidden from users. People are a lot more likely to go to the doctor for a cold when it's a $10 co-pay, after all it doesn't cost them anything right? And then doctors run unnecessary tests just to be safe and protect themselves from malpractice lawsuits, and the patients don't see the cost of that either. Maybe if people had to actually write a check for their premiums instead of having the non-subsidized portion withheld from their paychecks, and they also had annual deductibles on their policies, they'd be a little less likely to make frivolous use of the system since they could actually see the impact to their pocket book from those unnecessary doctor's visits, or from insisting on the latest prescription drugs when there are more affordable alternatives. The current system encourages wasteful use.
As for the health insurance bill, I think a lot of people who oppose it agree that reforms were needed: things like making sure that you can't get your coverage dropped just because you get sick, or making sure that people with pre-existing conditions can get coverage, etc. But this bill is just a bad deal, and no amount of spin by the democrats changes that fact. It would have been one thing if they had said, "it's the right thing to do no matter the cost", but I find it truly amazing that Polosi et al can stand up there with a straight face and say that this bill will reduce the deficit. They can't possibly be that stupid, so the only conclusion I can draw is that they're liars. The CBO estimate is only for the first decade, in which you have 10 years of taxation to pay for 6 years of benefits, and it also double-counts savings in Medicare that have little chance of ever materializing. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what's going to happen in the second decade. The fact is this bill takes no concrete actions to control costs, it's only going to make things worse.