It's not a horrible idea in theory, but there's just no money to pay for it. Obama wants everyone without private insurance to go onto Medicaid, which is the program for the poorest people to get health care. The problem is that Medicaid is already broke. Doctors are supposed to get reimbursed by the state for treating Medicaid patients. In my area, the state is already over three years behind in making those payments to the doctors. They are currently offering about 10% as a lump sum settlement to the Docs, and that is 10% of a bill rate that was already reduced to less than half of what private insurance pays. Many specialist physicians are simply refusing to treat Medicaid patients, because the doctors know they will likely never get paid for their work.
Obama is blaming Doctors for a lot of the health care mess. Of course he and Michelle both have law degrees, not MDs, which makes them blind to the damage that lawyers are doing with frivolous lawsuits. I know one Doc right now who is absolutely one of the best around at what he does. He performs $10,000 surgeries all the time on people that he knows are never going to be able to pay him back. He is currently having to take a month off work to go to court for a malpractice suit. The basis of the claim is that, after breaking his arm and getting a cast put on, then ignoring all advice, never going back to the doctor's office again and cutting the cast off himself at home...now the guy's arm hurts. What a surprise. That is a $500,000 lawsuit that is going all the way to a jury trial. They offered $25,000 as a settlement to avoid trial, which is itself ridiculous, and the guy refused.