At the same time, Obama said, “most of this plan can be paid for by finding savings in the existing health care system — a system that is currently full of waste and abuse.”

I’m always amazed by the educated people who buy the fable that universal health care will reduce emergency-room visits — and hence practically pay for itself.

Wrong. As The Week magazine reported, after Massachusetts passed a universal health care plan, “demand at emergency rooms has only increased; more people are seeking medical care because they are insured, but there are not enough general practitioners to treat them.”