I would be willing to bet that nearly all people who support the current health care system in the U.S. fall into one of two catagories. 1. They are either employed or have ownership in some part of the health care system or have a close family member so involved. Or, 2. They are nicely insured by some employer or other source. (There may be a third catagory of flat out rich folks who are happy to be able to "buy" the "best health care there is" though they probably have very expensive insurance policies.)
The 40 million or more Americans with no health care and those saddled with the typical HMO which tells them what doctors they can see and when probably don't have the same perspective.
One interesting thing is that those who tout the present system love to complain about the "cost" to the "system" from those without insurance when those folks can't avoid seeking health care. However, the "cost" imposed by those folks on the system is not honestly recorded.
For example, two years ago I had two heart stints implanted. An afternoon proceedure in the heart cath lab and stayed overnight in the hospital. The amount "billed" for the procedure was $87,000. That is the amount which would be billed to an indigent or someone without insurance. The total "allowed" or agreed to by the doctors and hospital to be paid primarily by insurance was $11,000. The $87,000 figure is pure BS.
No one who has any kind of insurance or plan pays even a quarter of the charges imposed on those without insurance. But, the health care providers charge that highest amount to those who can least afford to pay and then write that amount off when they calculate their taxes. The providers also add up all those totally unrealistic charges when they claim in the public and press how much it costs them ("and all of us")to provide unavoidable services to the indigent.
And of course, in a system with universal health care, there are none of those nasty uninsured folks to inflate the "cost" of unpaid health care.
One other thing which has been mentioned here but I have not seen directly addressed. The defenders of the present U.S. system are always eager to share horror stories of health care deficiencies in other countries. You know, the 6 month wait for knee surgery and all. But, those stories are always anecdotal and not in any way a scientific appraisal of a system. And, if you compare even the anecdotal stories with the HMO stories easily enough found in this country, you get the same thing, maybe worse.
But again, out system is well entrenched and pays out way more than its share of mordida to the politicians. Don't expect any dramatic changes.
Jake

R. Craig Clark
jakearoo(at)cox.net