If you think healthcare is expensive now, wait until it's free.

Comparing the economies of the United Kingdom and European countries with that of the United States is intellectually dishonest, as they do not use the same accounting standards or economic models. That aside, if one looks closely at Great Britain's healthcare system, the similarities to the "command economies" of the former Soviet bloc countries are striking.

Fact of the matter is, Great Britain's vaunted healthcare system has some 750,000 people on hospital admissions waiting lists, (except for politicians and bureaucrats, who get moved to the front of the line) and hospitals are being ordered to implement "minimum waiting times" of 122 days or face the threat of deceased funding. Furthermore, most medical professionals in Great Britain are government employees and there is a shortage of specialists because of the low rate of compensation.  Services like chemotherapy for cancer patients and cardiac surgery are carefully rationed, and care can be denied to the terminally ill.

Personally, I think Health Savings Accounts are the way to go. Handing over 1/7 of the US economy to those same wonderful folks who brought you the DMV would be a disaster.