I see it from both sides. I'm not a fan of socialized medicine. I would prefer government insurance for those who cannot get it elsewhere. I had cancer 12 years ago. I was self-employed in California and basically prayed I wouldn't get ill. Here, I'm technically unemployed until I find a job. Because of these facts and being a smoker, I cannot get private health insurance. Well, one company did offer me health insurance at $5,000/month and a $10,000 deductible. Sorry, that didn't seem very realistic to me.

So, I now have $53K in medical bills that keep rising every time I check my mail. I will find a way to pay these bills because that's me but it certainly won't be easy nor fun. Had the government had some sort of plan where I could have bought medical insurance from them at a semi-reasonable rate with a semi-reasonable co-pay, I would have jumped at it.

To make a blanket statement that people should get their own insurance is unrealistic in today's world. To go to socialized medicine is, to me, not the right answer, either. Somehow, though, there has to be something between having no coverage and socialized medicine.