Kathryn, your points are well-taken. It seems that Krugman really does believe that government magically provides free health care, and even though doctors and other medical personnel continue to be paid, apparently such a system has no opportunity cost. Granted, he has written elsewhere that a “universal” system would be less costly than what we have now because profits are “costs” to the economic system. A system that does not have profit by definition will be less costly, and that everything else will operate just as it did before the nationalization. (Yep, he really seems to believe this nonsense.)

As for raising new funds, that never is a problem to a Keynesian. After all, Keynesians believe that money is “wealth,” and that if the Fed directly purchases government bonds, then there will be only positive effects — if a Democrat is in the White House. Yes, true wisdom from our latest Nobel laureate.