I'm so frustrated with Health Care in America

Although I heavily lean towards single-payer systems of health care, I am always open to solutions involving the private market that promise fair and accessible coverage for everybody. However, today I just want to put little fact on the market. I have been spouting off recently to friends how frustrated I am about something I heard on NPR. Rudy Guliani's policy advisor recently said something to the effect that the U.S. government spends more per capita on health care than Canada. To it was very well known that the U.S. spends more, as a nation, per capita by a long shot but to actually hear that government spending was more per capita as well was a shock. Well today, I'm backing this radio message I heard with hard data. Here's the table:

From this table we glean to main fact in our comparison between Canada and the United States. First, Canada and the United state have about the same percentage of GDP spending per capita on health care, but once you look at the actual amount of money spent, the United States spends over 50% more than Canada per capita!

I think this should frustrate any American paying for health insurance. Per capita the government is spending $36,006 but you still have need of your own private insurance on top of that? There must, MUST be a better way!

For example, for me this is what I demand: universal health care. There are two main reasons why: 1) the moral argument and 2) the practicality.The moral argument needs little elaboration, so I will just quickly elaborate on practicality. Do not look at Canada as an example for universal health care. There are problems, and it can be done better. For example, encourage and allow greater role for physician assistants and nurses in primary care and encourage doctors to continue training for more specialized roles. That's just one of my great ideas. Check out this article for more good reading.