-snip- Health should not be a privilege. Basic health should be something every person deserves to have.
This is why, in Europe, its considered a basic human right for every citizen, money or not (and constitutionally implemented so, if sometimes indirect: Article 1 introducing the German constituion: "(1) Die Würde des Menschen ist unantastbar. Sie zu achten und zu schützen ist Verpflichtung aller staatlichen Gewalt"; Freely Translated: (1) Human Dignity is the most basic good and not to be touched/denied ever. To respect it and to protect it is the highest obligation of every state institution or state executive power"; our social systems are based on this article, as only a healthy human can preserve dignity). Paying all those freely included to protect what we believe to be dignity, we still have (Spain, Germany are the only ones I can comment on from experience) a cheaper and better system.
If my kid (the future, see it from a sociological - investor into social security - or from an economic POV - each human person here in Europe is calculated to be an economic assett worth 18 Million Euro in average - ) gets ill, it will get the best treatment you can think of, and it will cost me zilch, zero, and that makes sense.
The difference to private security paying ppl is that, when private, my kid will be treated faster if the case is not urgent, and that it will have it´s own single room (? right, just what I want!) and I can chose the doctor/surgeon. Not private, the treatment *quality* will be alike, forget about cost as a citizen (that is why we pay a bit more than the average US citizen on taxes and have obligatory Social Security payments to make if we have income). This also is the reason why those movies about the "...heroic father taking hostages to get a heart valve replacment for his daughter..." don´t fly here, and, from my POV rightly so.
Beat that, US, then let´s talk again (or, after you found yourself unable to economically save your kid because you cannot afford a transplant and have to visit the cemetry every day...). From my POV - no offense intended at all, just the way I see it - you US guys are, without realizing you are being used as cannon fodder by interested groups that have no health care problems, systematically risking to waste your future just to keep some insurance companies rich, and they sure want you to think that way, and they will do everything and spend a lot of money to keep you wanting to think so also...
As we say here about democratic states: "Each people has the system/leaders/crooks it deserves!".
Rattler