I believe one of results of the present health care system in the US is general insecurity among a large part of the population. If we view a society as an organism, and even if we don't, that is quite a bad thing not only for health of an individual but also for health of the society. E.g., it is simply wrong to give people financial option of getting a basic dental health care or not (e.g. I will have my tooth taken out because I can't afford to have it saved). The government is damaging health of the nation by allowing that. How big would be direct costs of providing basic dental treatments for everyone? How big are indirect costs of not providing it?
On the other hand you are running the world's most powerful military machine in existence. Can you really afford it? Does that make you feel more secure than a better health care system would? A half of your present military costs would probably be enough to keep you equally secure as today. Since you would have to cut some (shady) global policemen adventures maybe it would also cut the percentage of people hating your guts. For a quarter of your military costs (saved in the previous step) you could have the best public health care system in the world. The remaining quarter would be enough for making USA the best place on this planet and for a few manned trips to Mars. Since this is a Mobile Read forum we should not forget free e-book readers for everyone.
