[bluesbassman]

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You are so wrong it's scary.

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I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you, as I am trying to learn more about this subject.

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I know; just trying to emphasize how vigorously I disagree with the idea.

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But, don't other countries have socialized healthcare programs that work, by and large, pretty well?

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That's difficult to judge, since:

-- All countries (including the U.S.) regulate/socialize health care and the economy in general to various degrees.

-- We don't really know how much better the quality of health care would be in those countries if it wasn't socialized. Again, I refer you to Hazlitt's "broken window" fallacy.

-- The socialized countries do benefit from advances made in the freer economies. For example, I gather computers & software are reaonably cheap & available in Sweden. This is surely due in part to the (relative) free market in that industry in the U.S. and Japan. I wonder how many people in Sweden would have pc's if the U.S. and Japan had socialized the computer/microchip industry 30 years ago?

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And don't these countries sometimes invent life-saving new medicines and procedures? I mean, it's not only America making advances in medicine, is it?

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But there is no way to know what additionally *would* have been developed. How can you compare?

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As for the insurance issue... many people get their health insurance through their jobs, so their choices are limited to whatever their employer has. Also, the for-profit nature of insurance leads to 150-page coverage documents written in jargon and legalese, which most people don't understand (and don't even read) until they are denied coverage for something they assumed would be covered.

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It still comes down to crappy if not fraudulent service. If so many insurance companies really do business that way, I'll start my own company which does not give customers the run around, and I'll become very wealthy and successful. The freer the market is, the easier it will be for such competitors to compete.

That many people buy health insurance through jobs is not relevant. If I don't like the choices offered by my employer, I'll look for a job with better benefits or better pay to buy my own. Again, that's only possible in a free market.