I'll explain myself. Medicare and Medicaid are private services paid for with public funding.
A national health service is actual public services.
The health care providers, in a sense, are working for the government because the government provides the services
rather than just paying for it, similar to the VA hospitals. Also similar to the police and fire departments, for that matter.
Health care professionals oppose an NHS because of that; they wish to be independent agents, not salaried government employees as
they are in the UK. The UK has private health care as well, but if you use it, you still have to pay the taxes for the NHS.
Thus, I understand why some liberals would rather have the public funding / private service model. I'm not arguing that that's bad.
Ideologically, however, I would rather have the NHS. That my personal position. I'm NOT a libertarian as you know, and I'm not afraid of a more
comprehensive public sector and a more regulated private sector.
Humans are not generically solitary animals like some others. Humans genetically evolved to live in packs--societies--and are thus burdened with being socially responsible, not independent free agents.
We seek personal autonomy where it's appropriate, but are supposed to understand our social responsibilities.
That's why I call myself a socialist. It doesn't mean that socialism and capitalism are a binary choice. They're not.
They run concurrently in every economy, but the lines must be drawn in a socially responsible manner
to be morally legitimate.