I think many Americans are unaware of how people in other countries regard their health care system - it just seems barbaric to us, that people in a wealthy modern country can go without basic medical care because of insurance or finances.

I have an elderly American aunt who went ten years with a simply corrected common condition which causes incontinence in older women. She couldn't afford to have it fixed. Her medical insurance (through employment) in the US considered it a non-essential procedure. Her eventual solution was to move back to Canada, where she hadn't lived since 1948, and stay long enough for MSI to kick in so she could get some treatment. (Annoying, because she hasn't put anything into Canada, and thinks the US is a much better country, plus was a truly aggravating longterm guest for her relatives).

I've often read on US forums complaints from people made miserable by minor ailments they let go too long because of the cost - infections allowed to get very serious, pneumonia allowed to become disabling, eye infections threatening sight. These people aren't even complaining about the system, but beating themselves up for having a bad insurance company, or being unemployed, or poor.

I cannot fathom why any American would not be pushing their government to start working on a better system, and yet many seem to think public health care = communism (or welfare).