As far as I can see, there are now two issues being discussed here. One is "Universal Health Care" which is both a political and practical non-starter and the other is the creation of some sort of early warning system. As has been noted, that early warning system is already in place though it needs work. It worked fairly well during the Anthrax incident a few years ago. CDC does a decent job, not perfect, but good enough. I would be very wary of creating more government beauracracy to try to make it better (or anything else for that matter).

SFC W