Whenever this debate comes up I substitute basic medical care with basic food or shelter. We don't have insurance for those, but we do have insurance for rare

Whenever this debate comes up I substitute basic medical care with basic food or shelter. We don't have insurance for those, but we do have insurance for rare and expensive things related to them, like house fires, and disability insurance so we can still buy food if we can't work. Certainly those types of insurance should be available, heck even government provided if we want, for rare and emergency medical care. But we don't buy Kaiser or Aetna food insurance. Employers (mostly) don't provide housing. Why does medical care have to work this way? Similarly, we don't have socialized single-payer food or housing (though countries have tried that). Why do we think that is the only solution for better medical care in America?