[PMunch]

Because unlike food and housing health is something that can hit people very unevenly. Imagine walking down the road with a copy of yourself, everything in your life is equal, you earn the same, eat the same, same genetics, etc. All of a sudden a car hits your copy and leaves him with a broken leg. The car sped off and the driver is never caught. Now through no fault of his own your copy has potentially huge medical bills whilst you do not. The concept of insurance and government paid healthcare is simply to distribute these costs. Everyone pays a little, but when you need healthcare you get it. Of course the current US system is quite broken so you end up paying a lot and still not getting healthcare when you need it. The government has a lot more tools to regulate prices of healthcare and no runaway capitalist drive to make money which makes them far more apt at providing such basic services as healthcare.