There's a lot (a lot) to be said for universal healthcare, but to answer you question in the general case (why americans don't want to be more like Europe), thi

There's a lot (a lot) to be said for universal healthcare, but to answer you question in the general case (why americans don't want to be more like Europe), this might give a good hint: http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2013/05/daily-chart-17 http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2013/05/daily-c... Becoming Germany, Britain or Sweden would probably be a tolerable tradeoff, but a lot of factors go into that, it's not something that happens as a result of a single policy or two. Do note that in Portugal the rich are worse off than the poor in the US, and Italy and even France aren't far off.