CA:
As a fellow American (or do you spell that Amerikan?) who happens to work in the health care system, I'd like to set a few issues straight.
1) The vast majority (97%+) of hospitals are not for profit.
2) It is illegal to turn a patient away because they have no insurance. I know many hospitals that run operating deficits because they treat indigent patients.
3) Medicare pays ~ 50 cents on the dollar for hospital charges.
4) Private health care insurers base their payments off what Medicare provides.
5) Having also worked in the health care manufacturing industry I can tell you that many companies turn 10%+ of their revenues into research and development. Without this R&D we would not have the advances in health care that we do. In my industry there were no significant manufacturers outside the US because they could not survive financially. In the company I worked for (I'm back into not for profit health care again) we were the No1 provider in the world and well over half of the business was done in the US. WHY? Because the rest of the world can't afford the equipment even at cost because of socialized medicine.
6) Yes infant mortality is too high in the US. However, the vast majority f babies are born in Hospitals which are terrible places to deliver. Complication rates for home birth accross the US are far less (no this is not a self selecting group). That is why my little boy was born at home.