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Health care is considered a right in most "first world" countries outside of the United States.

The reason healthcare is considered a right in most of the "first" world is that in order to control disease spread and to ensure equal ability to work (by having controlled disabling conditions) it makes sense to apply the services across the entire community.

Health care costs have skyrocketed in the last 20-30 years, going from about 5% to almost 20% of Gross Domestic Product.

This is true both in the US and in countries with socialized medicine, although the % GDP cost is not as great in other countries as in the US.

Some of this is due to defensive medicine and our litiginous society. Some of this is because we pay the bulk of costs for development in pharmaceuticals and equipment. We also train more physicians than many other countries.

Providers have not seen much of this increase as it is in hospitals, supplies, technology and pharmaceuticals. Mechanisms to control costs are primarily aimed at providers and hospitals.

We do not have the best statistics in many areas of health care. This is not only due to access to health care but certainly it plays a role in the care.

While it is true that availability of health care CAN be easier in the US (I bet it easier to get an appointment in the UK for a new patient than much of the US on Medicaid,) this is only available to about 50% of the population.