In the UK at least, universal healthcare through the NHS was created largely because it was seen to be the morally right thing to do:
The collective principle asserts that... no society can legitimately call itself civilised if a sick person is denied medical aid because of lack of means.
I think it is worth noting that the book by Aneurin Bevan, the founder of the NHS, from which that quote comes was called "In place of fear" - that's what we had before socialized medicine (NB not claiming that the NHS is perfect, it clearly isn't - but compared to a lot of the alternatives it's fantastic).
Of course, we do deny some care because the NHS can't pay for every treatment for everyone - but at least they try to decide this in a fairly sensible evidence based manner.
The collective principle asserts that... no society can legitimately call itself civilised if a sick person is denied medical aid because of lack of means.
I think it is worth noting that the book by Aneurin Bevan, the founder of the NHS, from which that quote comes was called "In place of fear" - that's what we had before socialized medicine (NB not claiming that the NHS is perfect, it clearly isn't - but compared to a lot of the alternatives it's fantastic).
Of course, we do deny some care because the NHS can't pay for every treatment for everyone - but at least they try to decide this in a fairly sensible evidence based manner.