you, Sir Hugh, are a lying liar who perpetuates lies...but that's just my humble opinion...

I'm sure you do have more 'horror' stories...

Okay, I'll admit it. Our system is NOT perfect. But my homeless schizo brother died in hospital after 6 months of top notch care in a private room -- and with dignity. 

My sig. other requires 30k of meds and more in treatments...and we don't have to sell our house or go broke or worry our asses off...

You sir, are telling oddball stories...I think most people here get that.

Here are some horror stories from the American healthcare system.  I could go on all day:

Insurance Company, Hospital Gang Up On Seriously Ill Woman

Uninsurable Because of Diabetes, Now Paying Off $37,000 Hospital Bill to Collection Agency 

17-Year-Old Girl Dies Awaiting Life-Saving Liver Transplant Recommended by Doctors that Insurance Initially Denies

Colorado Mom Says, "No One Plans to Have a Sick Baby"

RN and Single Mom Cannot Afford Daughter’s Insulin and Care

Young Woman Battles Insurance Company for Effective Medications

Young Mom, Wife's Coverage Costs as Much as Mortgage

Independent Trucker Loses Business and His Dream

Young, Insured Father Stuck with $25,000 in Out-of-Network Costs 

Four-Year-Old Boy at the End of His Insurance Rope

Cancer Kills Sister Because of Lack of Health Insurance

Treatment Delayed for Months, But Insurance Cancelled When Just One Day Late with Payment

HMOs Decide 57-Year-Old Husband's Life Not Worth Saving

Another Veteran Abandoned After Injury

Young Husband, Father Dies After Denial of Cancer Treatments

Cancer Patient’s Treatment Determined by HMO, Not Doctors

RN Suffering from Incurable Disease Fails to Keep Up With Medical Expenses Even Though She's Insured

Young, Insured Cancer Patient's Parents Risk Bankruptcy for Treatment

RN Cares For Physician Husband But Cannot Believe Costs

The Perils of Pre-Existing Conditions and the Struggle of 29-Year-Old Critical Care Nurse

Breast Cancer Patient Can No Longer Afford To Save Her Own Life

Postal Worker with Stage 4 Breast Cancer Fought Insurance Company for Life-Saving Treatment for Eight Months While Cancer Spread

Single Mom with Cancer, Can’t Afford Employer’s Health Insurance, Lives in State of Fear

26-Year-old Daughter Died Because She Feared Medical Cost

Insured Amputee Still Faces Liens against Home

24-Year Military Veteran Left To Die

Permanently Disabled at Age 46 Because Insurance Refused to Pay for MRI

when you have 47 million more examples then perhaps you could make a case....

I know you like graphics so...

America even loses out in quality to Canada which is suprising because those who have actually got health care in America pay more...

http://www.gallup.com/poll/ 8056/healthcare-system-rati ngs-us-great-britain-canada .aspx

From 10 Myths About Canadian Healthcare Busted:

2. Doctors are hurt financially by single-payer health care.
True and False. Doctors in Canada do make less than their US counterparts. But they also have lower overhead, and usually much better working conditions. A few reasons for this:

First, as noted, they don’t have to charge higher fees to cover the salary of a full-time staffer to deal with over a hundred different insurers, all of whom are bent on denying care whenever possible. In fact, most Canadian doctors get by quite nicely with just one assistant, who cheerfully handles the phones, mail, scheduling, patient reception, stocking, filing, and billing all by herself in the course of a standard workday.

Second, they don’t have to spend several hours every day on the phone cajoling insurance company bean counters into doing the right thing by their patients. My doctor in California worked a 70-hour week: 35 hours seeing patients, and another 35 hours on the phone arguing with insurance companies. My Canadian doctor, on the other hand, works a 35-hour week, period.

She files her invoices online, and the vast majority are simply paid — quietly, quickly, and without hassle. There is no runaround. There are no fights. Appointments aren’t interrupted by vexing phone calls. Care is seldom denied (because everybody knows the rules). She gets her checks on time, sees her patients on schedule, takes Thursdays off, and gets home in time for dinner.

One unsurprising side effect of all this is that the doctors I see here are, to a person, more focused, more relaxed, more generous with their time, more up-to-date in their specialties, and overall much less distracted from the real work of doctoring. You don’t realize how much stress the American doctor-insurer fights put on the day-to-day quality of care until you see doctors who don’t operate under that stress, because they never have to fight those battles at all. Amazingly: they seem to enjoy their jobs.

Third: The average American medical student graduates $140,000 in hock. The average Canadian doctor’s debt is roughly half that.

Finally, Canadian doctors pay lower malpractice insurance fees. When paying for health care constitutes a one of a family’s major expenses, expectations tend to run very high. A doctor’s mistake not only damages the body; it may very well throw a middle-class family permanently into the ranks of the working poor, and render the victim uninsurable for life. With so much at stake, it’s no wonder people are quick to rush to court for redress.

Canadians are far less likely to sue in the first place, since they’re not having to absorb devastating financial losses in addition to any physical losses when something goes awry. The cost of the damaging treatment will be covered. So will the cost of fixing it. And, no matter what happens, the victim will remain insured for life. When lawsuits do occur, the awards don’t have to include coverage for future medical costs, which reduces the insurance company’s liability.

Did you become a teacher because you thought your paycheck would afford you multiple vacation homes? I didn't. I wanted to help people who have trouble being taken seriously in English.

Speaking of which, your random hypen after "not paying for medical care" should be replaced with a period and moved into the middle of the compound adjective "profit-driven."

[b]bobo1[/b]

[i]That by removing the profit motive in health care that people would still want to spend thousands of dollars to become doctors? [/i]

Well apart from the pre-fab post given to us by ihavenobias, yes the answer is an empathic yes. Your assumption, the assumption of neoclassical economists, is that people only do x bc its in their economic self-interest, the assumption of homo economicus guiding all human action. I posit that most doctors go into the profession for reasons other than high income, those who do go into the medical profession for income tend to go into specializations that have no actual medical benefits, i.e. plastic surgery. The fact is that most people who go into the medical profession do have a abiding sense of social justice and the fact is that what is more valuable than higher incomes is prestige of the position. The fact is that doctors invest all that money is for a variety of reason that are not reducible to some economistic interpretation. Ergo, I deny your premise.Your logic would dictate that all doctors, all over the world would have to work in the United States where they can make the most money. The fact is that is not the truth, because there are other factors that play. 

[i]If its anything like how they pay on Medicaid, good luck retaining anyone! [/i]

Well aren't there doctors who work for Medicaid? Therefore,  contradicting your whole premise.  

[i]I am in favor of not paying for medical care - I just want to know how they plan to do it and not cripple the level of care we can get in the profit driven system... :)[/i]

The level of care? Seriously? That level of care that American's get is far below what almost every other industrialized country gets. Americans are experiencing the second biggest swindle in history, the first being the bailouts for Wall St.  

you got anymore ignorant things to say bobo? you wanna ask about how igloo's get electricity? or how we fend off polar bears?