Socialized medicine, or increasingly socialized medicine, is always a tempting way to go when it seems that not everyone has access to the health care they need. People can't afford something? Why, pass a law that it has to be cheaper for god's sake! Simple! Just make the government steal the money from rich people and make THEM pay for it!

To say nothing of the myriad moral problems there are with appropriating the wealth of others to finance someone else's healthcare, socialized medicine is not very pragmatic either. The problem is that when healthcare is free, neither the client or the provider has any incentive to control costs, and this makes costs spiral out of control.

I don't know what medical schools are looking for in this essay, but if it were me, i'd write about medical savings accounts. I think the widespread availability of MSAs would be the best thing for our healthcare system.