Another problem with socialized health care

Megan McArdle actually has a very good point:

Not because hospitals are above covering up malpractice, or because doctors don't protect other doctors, but because any private hospital would have been terrified of getting sued.  The VA is very hard to sue because of sovereign immunity.

The sovereign immunity angle is almost a foregone conclusion because the federal government is not going to allow itself to be targeted en masse by people like John Edwards, nor will it allow itself to be easily held accountable by the common man for actual injuries. Sovereign immunity is the bane of civil libertarians in how it allows police to get away with incredible incompetence, and even borderline criminal conduct without even an apology to their victims. It's the legal mechanism which allows the police to bust down the wrong door, cause all manner of property destruction, terrorize a family, and the cite a warrant and claim good faith.

Socialized health care in the United States will look equal parts like the VA and your local public school system with the added benefit (to it) of being almost unaccountable. Even if free marketers were to concede that socialized health care works in Canada, the differences in both the legal system and government culture in the United States would simply not allow it to work here.