Does anyone remember when HMO's first came in? Yes, I'm old enough to remember when they started. There was a study that showed that when you had an HMO, you were 25% more likely to see a doctor. I remember being shocked that it was so low, because my experience was that it was WAY more likely than if you had to pay full price for an office visit. Parents would bring in their children for me to "just check their ears and make sure they're all right for our trip", or "he woke up crying today, and he doesn't usually do that". Then throw $3 in change at the clerk at the desk. Certainly that made it harder for us to give appointments for the children who were actually sick. Now imagine that attitude and that behavior magnified 100X for a nationalized health care system. If it's on the government's dime if you need to see a doctor, what is the barrier? It may end up being the availability of the doctor. Will medicine be overwhelmed by the banal and the impatient? And who decides? Not the doctors, and not the patient......so who?