I often wonder, though, if one reason so many of you are satisfied is because so few of you have ever known anything else?

Do you really honestly wonder that Doug? There've been accounts quoted in the thread, and linked to, of person after person who has experience the American system and the alternatives, and who come down emphatically for the alternatives. And the countervailing examples where people prefer the American system having lived under other systems, they just aren't there.

True enough, you've got good medical care, if you can afford it, and that's great. Sometime it's going to be better than people have elsewhere, for those who can afford it. After all, you pay enough for it.

But for millions of Americans it's out of reach - and for millions more Americans it is liable to be snatched away from them overnight, if (and when) they lose their work-related insurance, through no fault of their own whatsoever. Your neighbours, your friends, your relatives, hung out to dry.