The reason all with the means in Europe purchase private medical insurance (when they have “free” national health) is simple, it’s a great idea as long as you are not seriously ill. The reason so many Canadians come to the US for procedures as minor as arthroscopic knee surgery is for the same reason, the national health there puts you on a waiting list, 6 months or more . . . and if you are “too old” with serious illness . . . palliative care “take this pill, sit in the corner and be quiet”, till they physically remove themselves from the population by dying. Managed by Gubment workers (with as high a quality of commitment as at Motor Vehicle) the term “wait in line” achieves a certain deeper meaning. Of course people like Jay Rockafeller will never have to deal with the inadequacies of a system designed to enforce genetic imperatives (that the strong or chosen survive, that the weak and old fall by the wayside) in a petty/partisan way, Jay will buy his insurance and only see private Doctors (or remain under Congress’ plan as the elite of the elite).
National Health here is not a benefit, not an entitlement, it is a population control measure that will become petty, partisan and so burdened with process as to render actual results irrelevant (kind of like a typical corporate Human Resources Department).
