Responding to me, Ramesh Ponnuru writes:
I don't think [universal health care] is possible, actually. If you can't get an operation because your country's national health insurance system has you on a long waiting list, in what sense have you enjoyed "universal coverage"?
And if countries really did deny procedures through interminable waiting lists, that might be relevant. But waiting for an elective procedure -- no country I know of has waiting lists for emergency procedures -- that you then receive doesn't contravene the terms of health coverage at all. For Ponnuru's point to work, you'd need to define universal coverage as "instant access to any health procedure at all times." The actual definition of coverage, in contrast, is "inclusion in an insurance policy or protective plan." So if you're in, say, France, or Germany, or Canada, and all your procedures are paid for and you need never worry that your medical bills won't be covered, you have "enjoyed" universal coverage in exactly the sense the term intended.
Update: Jon Cohn has more. Waiting lists, it turns out, basically don't exist in France and Germany.
