And there are striking differences in attitudes towards medicine. Here, people pop pills like crazy, which skews the spending towards useless pharmaceutical research. In Britain, as I'm sure you know, you don't just take a cold pill or four, you tough it out.

The American system is the most expensive system, and it doesn't allocate services fairly, and it doesn't give good results. I agree with you. Personally I support single payer, unlike either of our political parties. I'm not expressing myself clearly, there's no question about that.

My reading of Metatone's comment was that in America you have insurance but don't get coverage. That is not the case, generally. (I don't know what your specific situation is.) On the other hand it is absolutely the case in countries with socialized medicine when they can't keep up with demand. Canadian surgery waiting lists. British dentist waiting lists. As you know.

Again, the problem with the American system is that it allocates health coverage unfairly.