It's not quite that simple and there is much more data to be looked at in terms of ranking our health care system. Certainly it has it's problems and the poor bear the brunt of it. I think that most people agree that this is not acceptable for the richest country in the world. That #37 ranking is only one criteria. If you are poor and uninsured in the US you are probably in trouble but this will vary geographically as well. I have a friend, who was uninsured (and with no property) and she went to the county, recieved state of the art care for lung/esophogeal cancer and survived despite a 5%, 5 year survival rate.
IMO every American should have access to preventive medicine and reasonable minimal health care (like Medicare). I not sure that I believe in socialized medicine however for everyone however. Your retired uncle is only partly right. Private health care should (and will) still be available to those who can afford it.
My wife and I are both self employed, I am almost 60 and she is 54. We have our own private group plan and pay about $1400/mo. For this we get $5 doctor visits, prescriptions, PT, and psychological care, $100 for scans and ER visits, $10.00 for lab work and chest xrays, $150 credit for eye care services such as glasses or contacts and 80% dental coverage. We have been very pleased with the quality of care that we get. It is an HMO and we see the same doctors each time. You can choose what doctors you want in the system and if outside specialties are needed they pay 100%. I could get a lower monthly payment by getting a higher deductible like $20 or $30. Being self emplyed it is also tax deductible. Because it was a private group plan, NO medical questions were asked for membership so pre-existing medical condition would not be an issue. An anonymous donor from my church paid for the first 3 months of our insurance.
Check out this report from the University of Maine:
http://dll.umaine.edu/ble/U.S.%20HCweb.pdf I am going to move this thread to the insurance topic tomorrow.
