Now, I do pay for my asthma prescription, but then I earn an ok wage, and pay taxes so that’s fair.  If I was broke and on the dole then I’d get it for free, otherwise I could just drop dead, and what kind of uncivilised country lets people die of treatable diseases?

Seriously, please sort it out soon America, we just can’t consider you a civilised country until you do.

Also, their great pride and joy whenever their young are sent into yet another war.

The ACA is not a step towards universal health care. The ACA just cements the awful, broken, ruinous for-profit system of health insurance around our collective feet…and still leaves millions uninsured…and saddles millions more with junk (70 percent actuarial value) insurance they are forced to pay for but can not afford to use.

After all, democracy isn’t about best politics (whatever those may be) but legitimized politics. 

Most people can afford a doctor’s visit, a mammogram or a blood test. Most people cannot afford cancer treatment, a major trauma or a premature baby with multiple complications. The cost of each of those would be several times an annual salary–perhaps more than that individual would earn in their entire lifetime.

I had a friend that died from breast cancer last year, and she had to sell her house and work like hell freelancing while on chemo, until she finally just swelled up with ascites fluid (pus) and died. 

I don’t see how paying the government vs. an insurance company changes how an employer treats you.

An employer will treat you radically different when they know that you are no longer enslaved to the insurance policy they provide you.

For example, Starbucks is known to use this carrot/stick approach with health benefits to force employees to work more hours, etc. (ironically sometimes unhealthy hours/shifts).

Many Americans are trapped into jobs they are overqualified for because they don’t want the lapse in insurance between jobs and/or will lose insurance entirely because of preexisting conditions if they venture to a better job.

We are losing money in this country becaues of lost productivity from overqualified people working jobs out of FEAR.

As far as what Eric was addressing. I addressed that in my reply to him already.

And while a single payer system is somewhat of a start, it doesn’t solve all of the price issues for healthcare.

No one I know of is claiming that a single payer system will “solve all price issues” for health care.

But, if you look at the overall costs, there’s much that can be saved from wasteful administration costs between the doctors and insurance companies: http://www.pnhp.org/facts/single-payer-faq#bureaucracy

Also, more preventative care will save vasts amounts of money:
http://www.pnhp.org/facts/single-payer-faq#costs_down

Not too mention, it’d be really nice to save the 45,000 Americans that die every year in agony because they don’t have insurance: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2009/09/new-study-finds-45000-deaths-annually-linked-to-lack-of-health-coverage/

Some of those 45,000 people that don’t die in agony might even make fine workers when they recover. Plus, the countless others that are not dying, but sputtering along in agony as well.

If it was as simple as eliminating insurance and the hassles it brings then I could get a 50%+ discounts by paying directly.

You should take a look at this entire FAQ and learn what a single payer system would really mean for the USA:

http://www.pnhp.org/facts/single-payer-faq

One positive outcome of the narcissism revolution is that not wanting a booger growing on your face for cosmetic reasons will provoke you to treat skin cancer earlier.  My microdermabrasionologist harasses her clients into going to the dermatologist to get things removed.

how many citizens have internalised the corporate propaganda

The really twisted part is Americans are paying to be lied to with their own payments to insurance companies.  A top man at CIGNA has come forward and spilled the beans.  Every American needs to see this interview.

A specialist visit costs via national sanitary service with a couple of instrumental exams costs about 70 €. The same visit paid in full costs about 250 €. 

Having a national sanitary service means that private visits have to cost less than where there’s not a public service to keep prices down.

(/angry and cynical)

Join the rest of the civilized world and implement socialized medecine.  Take all those politicians who work for the insurance companies against the electors and put their heads on poles. 
Edited to add: “Debt Collectors Work In Emergency Rooms, Demand Payment Before Patients Receive Care”
http://consumerist.com/2012/04/debt-collectors-hanging-out-in-emergency-room-demanding-payment-before-patients-receive-care.html

I keep hearing that the US is a democracy, but I see so little evidence of it.

And I have decent health insurance!

Be sure and examine the fine print like your life depends on it, because it does.  Many Americans are underinsured and don’t know it until something horrible happens.