Universal Health Care ≠Health Care For All

Don Boudreaux tells a sad story that took place in a land of "universal health care":

My family and I are in France.  Yesterday we visited, near Arles, the parents of some friends.  These lovely people have a newly acquired dog, Tor.  They came to own Tor because of the unfortunate death of their 60-year-old neighbor, whose dog Tor was.

Conversation at lunch revealed that the neighbor, who had a history of heart trouble, suffered severe chest pains a few weeks ago.  He wisely went to the hospital seeking treatment.  He was told that there was no space available for him.  He was advised to go home and call back later to see if a room might have become available.  He did so, but was told repeatedly that the hospital remained full to capacity.  Several days later this man died at home, never having received hospital treatment.

This incident, while true, is also an anecdote.  It doesn't prove anything about the merits or demerits of France's universal-health-care system compared to those of the (still somewhat) private system in the U.S.  But this sad event does reveal that merely declaring, statutorily, that every citizen has a right to health care, or that health care is "free" to every citizen, does not make health care available to all or "free."

I have never known for this type of situation to happen in the US or for anyone with heart trouble to be denied treatment at an emergency room in the US (or told to wait a few days).  Could it be that a mostly private health care system (like the US) provides more universal health care than a universal health care system like France?  Isn't that more important than the method of its provision?

What I don't understand is why people who claim to care about health care for all don't objectively ask these types of questions and develop the best strategies for achieving their goals?  Why are so many people who claim to want good health care for all so resistant to ideas about market-based health care, even when a lot of evidence shows it is better than the alternatives?

Sadly, I think Thomas Sowell's The Vision of the Anointed gives some of the answers.