*First off I am not a socialist.* - Just want to make that clear

But I do support socialist healthcare regardless of taxes or cost. I think there are more important things in life than money and health is one of them. To be honest the same goes for education too. It seems as though socialism is a dirty word in some of the more extreme capitalist countries. The socialist healthcare system may not be best for money, but it is best for people. If you look at the list of the top healthcare systems a lot of the socialist systems are near the top...

UK at 18th? I expected much higher. The standard of healthcare in the NHS hospitals near me is excellent. Must not be the same story everywhere then.

For me it is spot on, I'm suprised too. I live with three nurses and my Girlfriend is a doctor and I have came to realise that the NHS really does want it's staff to have an excellent level of training and be extremely good at helping patients. High standards for staff to say the least.

Yeah, you can follow the Canadian model where your healthcare system is rapidly becomming one of the worst in the world and (because the healthcare system has become a political sacred cow, and is protected by several powerful public sector unions) you can't reform the system and the only politically acceptable solution is to throw more money at it ...

Health is important, and until people start understanding that and take-care of their health I think socialized healthcare will always be a boondoggle.

Consider that the US spends by far the most money per person on health care of any of these countries, then why are there so many problems there? Just reform the damn thing so it'll work effective.

It'll cost you less in the long run.

When there is an inelastic demand for a good or service, a provider is able to milk it for all its worth in the form of higher prices and compensation.

I wonder how the face of modern health care would change on a global scale were the high prices on services and goods (medicine) to fall by a fairly large amount in the medical industry as a whole.

Most people in other nations do not realize how much per capita is spent on social programs in the US including health care.

The problem is that (for most people) there were very inexpensive alternatives for their healthcare that they simply refuse to take ... Regardless of the country you're talking about, between 75% and 80% of illnesses which represent between 80% and 90% of total costs are preventable.

If you are famous and deathly ill, the US is always the top destination.

I don’t have an endless supply of money. Every dollar I have, I have to earn. Every dollar represents a segment of my life. When you collect those dollars to heal someone else, you are trading my life for their health.

Why is their health worth more to you then my life?