Is it a cultural thing?

Is our inability to provide Amercian citizens with basic, publicly available health care coverage cultural? Think about the differences between American health care and most other systems and what it might take for ours to be like theirs. Will American physicians (most of whom are for-profit) agree to work as government employees? Will American consumers be happy with a "basic" benefit package and agree to wait for elective (defined by government) procedures? Will those who are currently insured agree to pay more to cover the uninsured? Will Medicare and Medicaid agree to pay the same rates to providers as private insurers? Will the entire health care system operate within a global budget?

Perhaps these are the questions we should answer (about ourselves) first before engaging in ideological health reform warfare.