Today's New York Times carries two related stories - "Health spending at record rate" and "Flu has killed 93 children, but comparisons are difficult." What's the connection? Two problems that could be better confronted with a universal single-payer health insurance system. The US spends twice as much per capita on healthcare as Canada, whose single-payer system eliminates the advertising and overhead associated with a system of multiple private insurers. Those convinced that the private sector is more efficient should keep in mind that overhead amounts to half of costs in US private healthcare, as compared to a couple percent of costs in Medicare. Countries with government health insurance also have higher rates of flu innoculation, which is to be expected given that demand for vaccine increases in a system designed to encourage, rather than discourage, visits to the Doctor, and supply increases when the government, which can absorb the costs of purchasing extra vaccine to make sure there's sufficient supply, is footing the bill.