A Cautionary Tale

I recently spoke with a person I'd never met before while trying to assist them in their job search. That's what I do: find people jobs.
For the sake of protecting his identity we'll call him Ian. The following is an excerpt of the conversation that I had with Ian, specifically as it pertains to our current and future healthcare system.
First some background information. Ian is a professional within the IT (Information Technology) industry who also has been heavily involved in the medical/healthcare field for many years. He expertise surrounds setting up and adminstering the systems that various healthcare programs use. He has lived in and worked all over the world mainly in Europe, Canada and Southeast Asia. Ian is highly educated and speaks 12 different languages. He speaks with a British accent and has most recently (last 5 years) become a citizen of the United States. That should be enough to understand where he is coming from.
As we spoke, Ian started to explain that his wife, who lives on an island in the Caribbean is dying. I can't describe how without revealing personal information.
Anyway, as we spoke he suddenly let out a large sigh and said: "You don't know how good we have it here in America, mate." I asked him what he meant by that and he continued: "You MUST resist Obama's attempts to change your heathcare with everything you have." (Now I normally don't talk about politics with clients/consultants but he did most of the talking and I just listened intently).
Ian stated that he used to work in London for a group of doctors years ago whose job it was to "administer" the government healthcare system. He told me: "Once a month these doctors would convene in London to make decisions about who would live and who would die."
I asked him what he meant by that. He said "You see, in this type of healthcare system there is a set budget that they must adhere to and all of the care and equipment costs come out of that budget." " If there is only 5 dialysis machines then only so many people will get a dialysis treatment that month." "You can't go anywhere else either," he continued, "because they are faced with the same issues there as well."
Ian went on for about 15 minutes recounting story after story after story of personal friends that had needed care and either could not get what they wanted or DID finally get it after waiting for months to do so. Some did not make it.
He said that his friends back home in England are very worried about what is going on here in America because this was thier "Ace in the hole" when they couldn get treatment back home. If America goes the way of England and Canada they'll have to find another place to get their treatment.
Ian said very solemnly: "I tell everyone I meet, and I mean EVERYONE that this will be the end of America if this is allowed to happen." He said "You American's don't understand that even though your healthcare system might be broken and it might be expensive, it's still the best healthcare in the world." "I know," he continued, "I've lived all over the world but I CHOSE to be an American."
Ian and I spoke for another ten or fifteen minutes and he finally said: "If you love this country, mate, you'll not let this happen without a fight."
The thing that I love about my job is that I get to talk to people. All kinds of people from all over the country and the world. I was struck by the passion that this man had for a country that he just came to know as his own not even a decade ago.
Ian fears that he will lose his wife soon and healthcare is a subject that is near and dear to his heart. She is dying because of an operation that was performed outside the United States in a healthcare system that was substandard to say the least.
His hope is to bring her here to the United States to see if she can get SOME treatment before it's too late. However, his confidence in that happening is slowly abating.
"Don't let this happen," I can hear him saying, "not here too." "Not in America."