Don't worry. Socialized medicine is just a matter of time in America. The government is systematically destroying or discrediting any private alternatives, and our population has already been thoroughly brainwashed into believing that medical care is an "entitlement" and should not have to be paid for. At least directly. Attempts to move medicine back into the marketplace are sporadic, and have little support.

Right now the U.S. has the medical equivalent of a "mixed economy," neither market nor socialized, which tends to exhibit the worst features of both.

By the time all medical personnel are government employees (like airport inspectors) and all medicine is paid by taxes, people will start to realize what they have done. Of course, by then, it will be too late.

The free market always works. The laws of supply and demand are as predictable as the sun coming up.

Rationing, shortages, corruption, abuses, and loss of care quality are inevitable. France has put some of this off by huge health expenditures (much higher per capita than Britain, which is already starting to hit the health care wall), and huge taxes. But they can't do it forever.

I'm glad you're doing well in France right now. This http://www.commondreams.org/views01/0309-03.htmlittle treatise is widely spread across the Web, and seems to indicate that socialized medicine is the wave of the future. The corporations and others who are taxed into insensibility don't show up in this picture.

Might want to keep an eye on other indicators like unemployment rates, economic growth, etc.