The British health care system has its own problems but is still leagues ahead of the US. The problem is that our system is left up to the free market. Libertarianism died with the advent of the second industrial revolution in this country. Laissez-faire simply doesn't work in today's modern global economy. I'm afraid Ron Paul ascribes to such failed policies of the gilded age, and spreads the myth that there is some kind of truer "American" libertarian base to which we must return.

Hell, Benjamin Franklin was popular for starting a number of different public systems, and Thomas Paine argued for a progressive income tax system only to render such revenues back to the greater public through social programs. Alexander Hamilton advocated a more national industrialized economy with a national bank, and established it as Secretary of the Treasury in George Washington's administration. Doesn't sound very libertarian to me. The Libertarian's poster child, Thomas Jefferson, only espoused such ideas within the context of wanting to create an economy based on local agriculture; his economic ideas don't apply to a modern industrialized nation.