Universal Healthcare

the U.S. is a free for all, every man for himself, kind of country, which is sad.

Thats one of the biggest misconceptions of the US system; its not.

Besides the fact that US citizens have some of their costs paid by employers, if you're below a certain income you're able to recieve aid from the federal government (Medicare) and state governments (Medical in California). In addition to that, there's a network of free clinics ( http://www.freeclinics.us/ ) across the country which give you treatment for no cost if you don't have to money to pay them. I've been in a free clinic before--I ended up paying because I had enough money to pay, but had I not, I wouldn't have been charged. Free clinics run on donations, but many states, including where I live--California--also give them funding to operate.  If there's some expensive surgery or treatment that's not covered at a free clinic, there are also countless charities ( http://www.charitywatch.org/ ) that collect funds to help with that.

One way costs are controlled in single-payer systems is reducing the salaries of doctors. In the 90s there was a week-long doctors strike in France because the government felt it needed to reduce the work week of doctors in order to reduce costs, and doctors salaries had been low as it was. Many doctors from Canada flee to the US in order to earn a better living, a so-called brain-drain.

Another is by introducing queues and rationing, which everyone is aware of.

Another is that in a government run system its harder to sue doctors or hospitals. In the US one of the biggest costs of healthcare comes from malpractice suits. When the government runs the medical system, suddenly malpractice suits become a lot harder.

So its a little more than nationwide insurance being more efficient, like you say.

Medicare is already swelling our debt. Something that was truly "Medicare for Everyone" would bankrupt us.

In the US, if you don't earn enough money, government will pay for all or part of your medical insurance. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicaid . If you have a disability preventing you from working, they'll also help you out. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Security_Disability_Insurance . If you're old they'll help you out. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medicare_%28United_States%29

No, the US is not wild west capitalism.

Well the only thing that would work at all with government involvement is a government run system. Obama's proposal for a public option would be disastrous for the budget, because unlike a government run system, there are no ways to control costs.. you can't cut doctors salaries or regulate their work weeks, you also do nothing about costs with malpractice suits. So you get all the expenses and none of the cost-saving features.

But a government run system has its own disadvantages to a market system, so we should take a step back and look what we can do to improve our current system first. We should try to pass things like tort reform, malpractice reform. We should allow people to buy insurance across state lines, and allow insurance companies to cover catastrophic care only.

If those things don't help control costs, then we should talk about a government-run system. But first things first.

Its based on estimation of the poverty line isn't it? If you're poor you also are eligible for tax credits and other federal aid. My only point there was that its not free for all capitalism.

At any rate, we can think about ways to improve the system we already have and reduce costs for poorer people.