You think healthcare is expensive now? Well, look to Hawaii to get a preview of what would happen if Obama gets his way and makes healthcare "free,"

On March 1, the Hawaii Medical Service Association began enrolling children in the state Keiki (child) Care program. The grand plan was to provide medicine for every child between birth and 18 years old who didn't otherwise have coverage.

But then parents who could afford coverage began dropping their private plans and placing their children in the program. Gov. Linda Lingle's office, seeing a sure disaster ahead, pulled the plug on the patient last week, citing "budget shortfalls." There simply isn't enough money in the state treasury to fund it.

...As socialist health care programs go, Keiki Care was small scale. Officials designed it to accommodate about 3,500 children. It never got that big. By the time just 2,000 children had enrolled, it had become obvious that it was not going to work.

Imagine if the plan included all children in Hawaii. Or all 1.3 million Hawaiians. It would have been a fiscal disaster.

Yet allegedly credible politicians and empty-headed dreamers want to forcibly socialize health care for the entire U.S. and provide coverage for 300 million Americans.

They tell us repeatedly that such a system will actually lower medical costs. Of course it will -- but only if health care is rationed, less high-tech care and advanced drugs are used, and people lose the right to choose their own doctor.

Every government that has experimented with such universal health care plans has experienced similar ailments. Britain? Long wait times and shabby care. Canada? The same. Sweden? Its problems are, not so remarkably, similar to those in Britain and Canada.

All three have cost-containment problems, as well, and all have to address the sometimes deadly nature of their lengthy wait times to see a doctor or to have vital surgeries, a hallmark of universal care.

Severe problems begin when large numbers in universal-care nations begin to help themselves to the "free" health care provided by the government. Since they believe someone else is paying, they run to the doctor for conditions they would not otherwise spend their own money on. That leads to system overuse, the symptoms of which are long wait times, overworked doctors, substandard care and soaring costs that must be borne by taxpayers.

Do you think Obama, Pelosi, Reid and Company would have the brains to pull the plug on socialized medicine after the costs started exploding like they did in Hawaii? Of course not. Hell, there is glib talk about trillion dollar deficits as is -- and that's before we even start trying to factor in socialized medicine.

Oh, but we won't have the same problems other nations with socialized medicine are having, right? Because Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, the same guys who are in charge of the most unpopular Congress in history and Barack Obama, who has never made an important decision in his life, are so much smarter than all those other people who implemented socialized medicine. It's like communism -- we just haven't had the right people in charge of it before Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and Barack Obama.

Other than long waiting periods for surgeries, substandard care, a shortage of doctors, exploding costs, and tens of trillions of dollars on new debt over the next few years, what could go wrong? Ok, there are probably dozens of other things that could go wrong, but it's best not to think of that....