Hang on though, it's not as if there aren't problems with state provided health care in other countries (I know that's not what you were saying, but I think it's important to make this distinction). One advantage the U.S. has is that people can go to any doctor that they want to, provided that they have the money. Another advantage is that people think about whether or not they really need to go to the doctor and so doctors and hospitals are not inundated with people who are there for minor reasons that may or may likely clear up on their own.

All I'm saying is that one is not necessarily better than the other, simply by virtue of one being what the other is not. Ideally, healthcare should allow people who need to see a doctor to go to one, while still providing doctors with the incentives to give quality care and without clogging up the system because healthcare is suddenly "free".

The American system might work or at least work a lot better if costs weren't so insanely and artificially high. That's more of an issue with approved medical suppliers and drug companies, as I understand it. Drug companies need incentives to research a develop new drugs, so that's definitely a part of the problem that wouldn't be solved by free healthcare.