I promise you my French insurance costs me less and pays for more so why wouldnt someone in America want something patterned after something like that?
Ok, firstly anytime you look at those types of health care plans you miss out on so many hidden costs. Public schools are not free, socialized medicine is not free, policemen do not work for free, etc... just because you are not always sent a bill or the bill you are sent is small does not at all mean every single cost was paid for by you.
I understand the French system is somewhat difference, but it was still brought about by a compromise with Communists. So, you can say it's not socialism, but I'll say it's 50% communist and that's based on who shaped it.
While the French system might be a sterling example of what socialized medicine at it's best can do, you also have to keep in mind (as I'm sure you know) the level of control Franch exerts over its citizens. They heavily tax and regulate everything from fast food to how much non-French music people can listen to. If you strip people of their freedoms, you do have more control over them. You might even be able to force them to eat healthier and cut down on costs there, but that's not freedom!
Ultimately, as I said before our system needs to return to the consumer paying for the services they receive. What people are proposing with any form of nationalized or socialized health care plan is to ultimately level the playing field as they see it. As you said "people need help". Well, the help will come from someplace. They'll increase taxes here, set prices there (which will ultimately force certain services from the health care system) and ultimately make the entire system more like Medicare and Medicaid. That's not at all my ideal of how health care works but that's what the type of plan will do, because that's the model we have to work off of.
Here's a reality we have to face. There's no way on earth to allow for people that can't come close to affording it, to have the most expensive and extravagant health care on a regular basis. We can tear down the providers of these types of health care so no one gets it but we can't have everyone driving Ferraris, that's simply impossible without changing what Ferraris are. Our health care system has competing priorities because we do, in many ways, tell them they have to provide care for people at the best level whether or not the person can afford it. The person still can't afford it if we have someone else pay for their care, it's just that now the bill will be paid. So, instead of the hospital losing money and the individual being in a hole someone else unattached to the situation now is worse off.
It's akin to cannibalism in my mind. To save ourselves we're encouraged to take bites off of other people. Is that ending suffering? Is that truly making things better? At some point we have to concede that people who can't provide for themselves should only have the most basic (like Cuba, heh) care available to them. Once that line is drawn, I think we'd see more of the people voluntarily out of the health insurance system choose to participate since the high level care is now unavailable to them.
Otherwise, I think Medicare and Medicaid should be downsized. I think bureaucracies should be limited and health care should cost more up front so that the consumer has more of a connection with his care. I also think the costs should be more up front as well. By letting the line become blurred it opened up a chance for costs to go up and access to go down. We're funding so must waste, fraud and deadbeats that of course the system becomes burdened.
People have reached a point now that they expect to be able to buy a carton of cigarettes a week, have cable TV and a cell phone and yet they don't think they need to care for their baby or provide for their own health care. I think we need to work more to remind people of the consequences of their actions, not work to remove those consequences. They won't stop being a burden or be truly better off because we paid for something else for them, all we end up doing is buying their beer and cigarettes. How does that really help anyone?