While national health care is not a simple matter, it is a matter that sometimes can solve simple problems, before they become tragic mistakes. Healthcare always involves people helping people and in that sense its one of the most sensitive areas in the consumer chain of exchange (so to speak), so much so it might need to be considered in quite a different light from other types of services for sale. For instance quality of health care should be considered in terms of the necessary sensitivity and appropriate service in the matter not... the expense, because the end goal is restoration of the person (ie. the end goal, nature, and cause for the effort are exactly the same every time, said restoration/wholeness). There are many other fields where this applies, for instance the educational system where the end goal is the exactly the same for every student (ie. appropriate knowledge), even if they decide in the end the best schooling is none. Historical opportunity costs prove that for some there may have been a benefit from no schooling, but not necessarily for everyone (Even so this is something that results from a persons free will, not neglect.). Because of the number of factors, a one size fits all approach is not always possible or necessary (whether for the personal touch of interaction, or prescription required). However in healthcare for healthcare sake if we detach the need of the individual from the goal of a healthy general public, we find that we are all better off when all of us are treated equally. For instance because a tenant in your building has proper hygiene and has a general community who cares about her/him, there is less of a chance that your mutually shared building will suffer from lice, bed bugs, and cockroaches. I think it is kind of the same with healthcare, the more people that can be helped the better for all. The argument does break down in the case that most things regarding health require a healthy community, and in the exceptional cases which are of aesthetic concern for instance plastic surgery etc. However I think we can agree that community is a shared playing field in most civilizations today (ie. free of cost). Or do you only say please and thank you so that others say please and thank you back? Interesting... I think I would have to agree with Treborrn, in health care bureaucracy is the last thing you need. Precision is penultimate. You would think the scales would tip towards precision, and honor. Of course all are touchy subjects, all subjective, so it is not surprising how easily they get left behind if left only to politicians to conjure (ie. the place where bureaucracy has its defining moments).