>I've talked to a few U.S. citizens that worked abroad who said healthcare in European countries is universally available but the demand outstrips the supply ca

>I've talked to a few U.S. citizens that worked abroad who said healthcare in European countries is universally available but the demand outstrips the supply causing longer wait times to get treated than in the U.S. and that they prefer the U.S. system. Whether we want to ration care by ability to pay or by another means, such as severity of illness, care will have to be rationed -- and the degree to which it must be rationed is inversely related to what percentage of people are covered by it. So of course well-off folks will perceive a system with a greater percentage of people covered and with care rationed in a way other than 'ability to pay' as being worse than a capitalist system -- they have to wait longer because they're standing in line alongside folks who, in the healthcare system they are used to, could not afford to be standing in line with them at all. The question is whether that drawback is worth providing access to care to folks who otherwise would not be able to access it.