Insurance is a mechanism for controlling risk for unlikely but high cost events. Using insurance as a payment mechanism for low cost everyday occurrances such as doctor visits is preposterous and the only reason we do it is that someone else is paying the premium.
Medical insurers are not the problem. They are simply offering a product for which there is a demand. For their work they make a reasonable profit which is in line with other service industries. Profit is not a problem. It is what rewards a business for a good product and efficiency. The reason that just about any government service you can name is impersonal and inefficient is the lack of profit motive. Giving over control of payment for medical care to the government on the theory that elimination of profit will produce lower cost is nonsense. Non-profit medical insurance companies are certainly no more efficient or less costly than for profit companies and they do not provide lower cost policies. If we want to make insurers even more efficient we must arrange for more competition.
Whichever way you slice the problem, medical care costs money. Medical personnel, prodedures and treatments must be paid for. The public will pay the bill either through taxes or as part of their work compensation. If we continue to insist on paying indirectly through government or through "insurance" arranged by employers, there will be higher cost, more wasteful, less appropriate and more inefficient results.
Medical care is certainly a right. What is not a right is demanding that someone else pay for it. In a wealthy and generous country it is proper that we help those who are unfortunate and deserving get proper medical care. That can be done through private charity and through government assistance. That problem does not call for government involvement to any other extent.
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