To answer the original question, I see it as a situation where you HAVE to control costs. By whoch I basically mean rationing care. You can save some administrative costs by going single payer and eliminating the billing/coding back and forth, and perhaps we can negotiate lower drug prices*. But ultimately we have to stop wasting money giving your 90 year old grandma chemo that will extend her life by 3 days, or doing mamograms and paps every year just because we always have even though decades of statistical analysis says it doesn't save lives, etc.
Basically, I am.pro death panel.
The other angle is that a lot of the preventative health stuff makes people live longer, but it costs more. It's cheaper to let a smoker smoke, and die young, than it is to have them quit and live longer, in terms of medical costs. Do we as a society want to let people kill themselves but off to save money, or do we want to encourage them to be healthy?
Another component I'd enact is ending all federal subsidies on grains and their sugar byproducts. Which has wider reaching economic effects than our waistlines, I'm sure. But at a high level, I'd like to see ag policy make healthier food cheaper rather than HFCS cheaper.
*Although I have doubts- if the newly launched NHS told the drug companies no, and the drug companies said fine! No insulin for you! It would take about five minutes before the NHS caved.