for health care 'consumers' in good health and taxpayers generally, health care is not major issue, such folks tend to be unmobilized/ ineffective players in health politics game, some people will cheer health care activist efforts without ever joining them (that free rider thingy), they're not motivated to fight for lower cost medicine when medical care represents comparatively small portion of personal/ family budget, in theory, health care 'consumers' will become more involved and can ostensibly have more influence when health care becomes issue due to rising costs, fear of financial disaster in event of catastrophic illness, or inadequate insurance coverage for lots of the population...
haven't above factors all been evident in u.s. for some time, is theory incorrect, or are things just not that bad...
maybe, just maybe, one constant here is health care 'providers', fdr omitted nhs because of producer interest opposition, producer interests defeated truman's union-backed nhs proposal (although some claim he offered it believing/knowing that he'd never have to make good)...
heck of a lot easier for providers of medical services to organize than for health care 'consumers' to do so, doctors, insurance companies, and hospitals are vitally interested in health care policy affecting their incomes, profits, working conditions, etc... mh