[retree]

But how come Scandinavian and many European countries manage do provide it?

The simple answer is we don't.

England has a body called NICE (National Institute for Health and Clinical Evidence) who assess each and every treatment. They're a body of experts who look at all the evidence on a particular treatment and work out how much it will cost and how much of an improvement it will bring to a persons life. It it doesn't reach a certain threshold - measured in cost per QUALYs (quality adjusted life years) - the government won't pay.

It comes in for criticism every so often (usually when it won't fund a new, very expensive cancer drug) but in the physicians (and government's) eyes it does a very good job for something so hard.

[abyssknight]

This. I was born in the UK, and I still have family there. They all have private insurance for this very reason.