Tom,
I don't mind your reaction, but yes you should read between the lines.

I'll give you a real example of how italian health insurance works, based on a true story instead of trying to give you the general idea:

my grandfather lost a battle against alzeimers, but that was after he lost most of his strength on his legs and honestly at 86 you can't expect much more from a person that lived through 2 heart surgeries and a life full of health complications (first hint: 86 years of health complications... don't know how long he would have lived in the US but again I am pulling assumpions out of my behind, hence the word).
He lived his last year at my parents home and I am not sure if you can imagine how difficult that might be. I hope your father inlaw is still alive and I hope you should never find yourself pinning him down on the floor to calm him down because he is trying to uncounsciously hurt himself. That's what my father found himself in and I cannot begin to imagine what went through his mind at the moment.
So my point is, what did the italian health system do for my grandfather?
Well, at no expense, they transferred my grandfather to one of the best hospitals and took care of him for 20 days. This is a law in place for families that are taking care of their loved ones at home and it's there to give them a brake from one of the toughest jobs. 20 days at a hospital with no questions asked every year you take care of a terminally ill loved one.
You might think this is nothing, but you have to realize what it ment for my parents after a year to be able to sleep through a night without taking turns, to be able to go about a day without checking your fathers blood pressure and life signs.
They took advantage of those 20 days to come visit me.
When they got back they had better news: a recovery home had agreed to take in my grandfather.

Please Tom, you are a very resourcefull person so I would like you to find a similar example of a health care plan that CARES, like italy cared for my grandfather.

As for the figures I pulled out of my behind, I am just listening to the doctors that I have talked to lately. I am not sure where they get their numbers but at least I am safe to assume they have a better idea than me. This also comes after reading how some hospitals might have to close down because of many of the uninsured patient bills that go unpaid, and how their request for help went silent. Don't look to hard.. just read your local news.. it's everywhere.

Lastly, I have never seen so much objections into looking for better examples as I have here in the US. It diesn't take too much to see that there are health plans that work better... and you are smart enough to know which ones I am talking about.
And not only health plans... but we could get great ideas for many things... like Education reform (India) or Financial reform (Swiss anyone?)
Or should we just continue to go our way with blinders on?

Some say I have a big behind, so prepare for more.

Daren