The means testing process/administration/bureaucracy for verifying all this will cost you far more than if you just covered everyone like every other rich civilised nation

Not really. You go into the hospital for chest pain they're going to do blood work. Checking for tobacco or drugs wouldn't be difficult.

Mandatory exercise would be a tough one

I'm in favor of it. We have a lot of money to do it. It wouldn't cost that much more and would help a lot of ppl.

They've conned you into thinking there isn't enough. Even if you had a bunch of obese trannies with diabetes on the dole, the US could still afford it and then some. It would have cost about 200 billion extra dollars a year in 2019 according to RAND. That's really not that much. We could also do sone sort of hybrid care plan to promote a competitive market.

Government Run Healthcare: the government controls everything

- builds/owns/maintains hospitals and clinics
- hires and pays all the staff
- decides what level of care will be provided

With government run healthcare there isn't a market balancing supply and demand. Supply is artificially constrained by the government.

Single Payer: the government acts as the insurance company

- for profit businesses, civic organization, or non-profits may all build/own/maintain hospitals and clinics
- for profit businesses, civic organization, or non-profits hire and pay their staff
- acting the same as insurers do now there would likely be limitations of some kinds [experimental txmt, elective surgeries]

With single payer there is still a market of providers acting in their own best interests. Supply can increase if there is a demand for it.

*Where government funded health sometimes falls down is in funding because people WANT good healthcare and they also want lower taxes and if scales tilt too far towards lower taxes then you can expect an insufficient supply [long wait times, lack of available appointments, etc.]

Allowing a private insurance system to run alongside single payer would allow those with means to insure themselves to cover extra services that the public insurance plan may not include...like a private room.

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One more time- you can't practically exclude all of the people that you think don't deserve healthcare. So long as they are part of a group and pay their premiums you are stuck with them.

IMO this may be one of the biggest reasons that many employers do not want to hire people over age 45 or 50. Once people hit that age we tend to need more healthcare. By minimizing the number of 45 and over people they employ businesses can improve their enrollees overall risk profile and keep their health insurance premiums lower.^^^
Wonder why you see middle age and older people in a lot of low paying retail jobs?

- large pool of employees [Walmart is a massive employer.]
- overall employee pool has a lot of younger workers

Since these big retailers have a lot of younger employees + a lot of employees in general they are less bothered about hiring a worker over age 45.

You might be over age 45 some day if you haven't gotten there yet.

Want to reduce costs? Why not actively promote a healthier society?