Not everyone is like this, which again, I understand. But at the same time being taxed out of my arse to pay for services nowhere near as good as they are claimed to be is just laughable.

The funny thing about the US vs Europe healthcare debate is, depending on what figures you look at, it's argued that the US system actually costs the government more per capita than the alternative. I think that was particularly the case for comparing the US to the UK, at any rate.

I'd hardly say I was an expert, but iirc, that's the core tragedy of the American system. It costs them similar amounts in tax, and then there was still the potential for paying huge amounts of money for the actual service afterwards (as well as potentially getting into fights with the insurance agencies over what they will and won't actually pay out for).

The Amercian system essentially, as far as I understood it last time I tried to get to grips with it, had all the failings of the alternatives but none of the actual benefits you'd expect for regular people using the system or the government in general. Both ends effectively get squeezed to make the middle men fabulously wealthy.

Personally, I take that as support for a UK style NHS type path, but I did get into a very discussion with someone over at the Reddit on the topic. You'll forgive my shitty memory, but I think it might have been Gizortnik and he had a very different solution to the same situation that boiled down to forcing the insurance companies to really fight for people's business so as to naturally push down the ridiculously inflated prices of everything, (though I wouldn't attempt to really explain in any detail because I do not remember anywhere near clearly enough).