It also ignores the fact that even if we accept his premise and if we assume that every single cent of the R&D money put up by the US comes in via high health care payments (it doesn't - a bunch of it is government funded and/or funded through charitable organizations), then if the US going to a universal healthcare system somehow halved the cost (bringing it down to the French level, while extending coverage to all), and this price cut somehow only came out of the money that'd get pumped into R&D and thus cut it to the bone, nothing would be stopping America from taking the savings and putting them right back into R&D.
In other words: Money doesn't magically disappear just because the way it is distributed changes.
"Money doesn't magically disappear just because the way it is distributed changes." Sure it does. Do you think these private groups would be making multi-million dollar bets if the prize of huge profits weren't out there?
In other words: Money doesn't magically disappear just because the way it is distributed changes.