Not even to mention, people are going to care less about their health and what they eat. They have health insurance! That's what it's for!
Americans eating even less healthily?
Giving 35 million people another bill is not worth it. Especially if they are a healthy family living a healthy life and put back money of their own for emergencies. It's a game of screw the man that saves and plans to feed the man that spends $20k on fancy new rims for his car and a shiny new big screen. (and no, that's not racist... I know plenty of people of all races that do this...)
Do you have any idea how expensive medical treatment can be? A normal person cannot put back money for such an emergency. And it's not just a matter of healthy living. You can't plan not to get hit by a car.
Every state mandates that you buy auto insurance, [...]
Fascism!
Anyways, What Cthulhu said. Nothing is ever free. We might not pay in 5 years, we might not pay in 20. But somewhere down the line, those 45 trillion dollars of debt will have to be paid off.
You guys already have the most expensive healthcare in the world, and no, it's not because it's the best (haha). It's because it's inefficient as hell.
People didn't die before... hospitals won't turn you away for an illness if they can give you life saving treatments. They may turn you away if you come in with a cold or other non-threatening illness, but if you're arm is broken, bleeding or missing they weren't going to ask for money up front and only treat you if you had insurance.
And who's paying for that emergency treatment?
That's exactly one of the reasons why your system is so inefficient. People will get treated anyway at some point, even when they weren't insured, having never paid in. And then,
end up bankrupt:
Medical debt is an especially notable phenomenon in the United States - the US being the world's only developed country not to offer universal health care. In less developed nations those on low income in need of treatment will often avail themselves of what ever help they can from either the state or NGOs without going into debt, but in the US medical debt has been found by a 2009 study to be the primary cause of personal bankruptcy.
I'm already spending far too much time in discussions lately, so I won't go on explaining your own healthcare issues to you Americans.
But from what I have seen, it's really quite sad. You guys are getting screwed by your own system, and you don't know it, or you ignore it because of ideological issues. Millions of people uninsured. And even those who are insured often go bankrupt because of copay. You guys get milked by insurance companies and blinded by political propaganda. Again, every other developed country has some form of universal healthcare!
So that will be my last contribution in this thread. If you want to hear personal stories about experiences of foreign healthcare systems, I recommend
this thread (yes it's SA, but it's a good read). Also, the guys at the Cracked forum have a some good threads going, e.g.
here, where I saw a lot of the issues being brought up here addressed. I would say that a lot of people on that forum are moderate conservatives, btw.
Good luck!