Excellent article, excellent questions and very nice discussion in the comments.

Here in Canada I guess our healthcare is socialized. You do not directly pay anything for hospital visits, Dr. visits, etc. BUT because it is free, it is widely abused, because it is widely abused the level of care is not good (8 hours waiting on a hospital gurney in a hall for treatment, months to get an MRI, etc.). This is not really free — you pay for this via your taxes of course.

Those with plenty of money go south when they want specialized care (MRIs for example). They are willing to pay for it in order to get expedited treatment. (You won’t see any of our sports teams waiting around for MRIs or whatever — they are expedited. Not sure how this works, but they are def getting ahead of the line.)

Socialist leaning advocates go hairy strange if the “pay for” option is raised. They claim it would cause complete disaster, etc etc. hurting those most vulnerable. Some of them believe that EVERYTHING should be free and also that everyone should be paid a guaranteed minium income. How this would be paid for remains foggy although the usual mantra is that “the rich” should foot the bill.

The old fashioned ideas of living within ones means, working for a living and taking responsibility for your life seem to have been pitched out with the bathwater.

Forgive me for being a bent old cynic. ;-)