I don't think there is a obvious answer to the question of what the health care system of the future should look like. In South Africa, public hospitals are te

I don't think there is a obvious answer to the question of what the health care system of the future should look like. In South Africa, public hospitals are terrible and private hospitals are generally good and operated as far as I understand in a similar fashion to the US counterparts. This may suggest that our future should look like the US's present. But it is a complicated subject. To start off with, many of the doctors at public hospitals are good doctors, paid well and respected. However, by a combination of being a new nation, having diverse cultures, having a high Gini coefficient (or <insert here coefficient>), having terrible rural schools (and excellent middle and upper class schools), etcetera, our public health care is frankly terrible. The hospitals are not well stocked, you'll wait for hours, they'll amputate your leg unnecessarily. In our scenario we have both the European "socialist" model, which worked well during South Africa's past. However, once the hospitals had to cater (and rightly so) for the full population, including poor and formerly disadvantaged, the system could not cope. So now we also have the American "money driven" model, but of course it is expensive and you have to have a medical fund or you are out. I don't think it is a question of idealogy. It's a simple premise. There is the world of sick people (which you are lucky if you join only a few times a year). And there is the world of healthy people. The premise is that sick people need to be treated. However you get there is perhaps politics, but I see it simply as a resource and logistic problem that need to be approached with commitment and expertise. This simple premise: to heal the sick, is how I see the early doctors that came to Africa [1]. Of course OPs topic is more complex, mental health, but my point is that idealogy is often lost on people (including myself) that have more obvious challenges in their midst. And mental health in South Africa is an even more pressing issue. [2] [1] See for example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Schweitzer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Schweitzer [2] Not going to share a link since they all seem written according to rather Trumpian standards. But about 90 mental health patients died in SA in one incident in 2017 due to what can maybe be termed "bureaucratic incompetence".