Happy Birthday!

What about the poor people of Italy? Do they have access to free health care, even if it is not as good as what you might pay for privately? Are they likely to die because they cannot get treatment or prescription drugs? Can they go to a clinic for illnesses rather than go to work sick or simply miss work until they get better on their own?

In my opinion, universal health care in the US shouldn't be primarily geared towards reducing the cost of health care to those who currently have it, although that should be a prime secondary consideration, but, rather, providing health care to those who are not able to afford it now. Currently about one-sixth of the US population has no health insurance at all, and they are, by and large, poor. And despite the lack of universal health care, the US government spends far more per person than any other country in the world on health care, which has been posited to be because of the quickly rising cost of letting illnesses go untreated until emergency room visits and expensive procedures are required. Imagine, for example, the cost differences between having a malignant melanoma excised and being treated for metastasized cancer.