[gwright]

This language isn't very helpful. It is likely paid for from general tax revenue. That might be a better implementation but it certainly isn't "free". And if it isn't explicitly paid for via tax revenue it will end up being paid for via inflation if the government spending is out of line with its revenue.

[olddustytrail]

The language is fine because that's what the word "free" means. Do you complain that a cloud provider's free tier isn't really free because it's paid for by other customers?

It seems it's only with healthcare people forget the meaning of the word.

[EMIRELADERO]

By "free" I meant "free at the time of treatment". Of course nothing is free. Traffic lights aren't free. Road maintenance isn't free.

[gwright]

Many people really don't connect the dots between tax policies and health care insurance/payment policies. Saying that health care/insurance is "free" makes it difficult to have a coherent policy discussion.

I know the ship has sailed on this but it I continue to see people truly believe that they are not paying for health care and that sort of misguided understanding of economics shouldn't be encouraged as it makes it difficult to have coherent discussions about many different public policies.

    College education should be free...
    College loans should be free (even when they weren't when the loan was taken out)...
    Income should be free (UBI schemes)...

If you switch to "subsidized" from "free" the list expands exponentially.