I'm not sure about that. The healthcare system is fairly straight forward here, as far as I know. Everyone pays 1.5% of their annual earnings and people who earn more than $XX,XXX/year (I forget the figure) pay 2.5% if they don't have private health insurance. There are exceptions to what is covered under Medicare and it's not "free" in the strict definition of the word, there is almost always a gap to be paid on the spot, but the system takes care of 60-80% of any medical bill.