The demand for Nintendo's Wii has not diminished since its revolutionary arrival last Thanksgiving. Yet Nintendo is still hesitant to increase its supply or raise the price of the Wii to reach some form of market equilibrium. This has led to long waiting lines outside toy and gaming stores, sometimes at odd times like Sunday at 8 am to weed out the casual gamer.
For some reason the Wii is being rationed, similar to how health care is rationed in Canada or the UK. There is ample demand in Canada, yet few monetary or policy incentives to increase supply. With limited (funding for) clinics, hospitals and new technologies, doctors have little motivation to open up shop and patients sometimes have to wait 3-6 months for a surgery or visit. Its one of the best representations of the saying, "there's no such thing as a free lunch". Government-regulated single-payer health care may seem "free" on the surface. But you end up paying for it in time and taxes.
Now take the PS3. Sony's debut of the PS3 occurred at the same time as the Wii, but (due to marginal cost) it was priced 3x higher (originally $799, now $399). No waiting lines here! In this case, the exorbitant price left only the hardcore gamers interested and not until the cost of producing such a high-end system went down did consumers see a reduction in price.
In this way the PS3 is akin to the American health care market. A quality product rationed by price. The high-end users (the sickest patients) are most indifferent to price and will purchase care at any cost simply because they need it (its the job of the insurers to reduce the financial burden in such a time of need). Other medium to low-end consumers can make a personal decision based on price and predicted value.
This simple analogy gives a brief glimpse of why international health care markets differ and how single-payer systems ration care. The PS3-America analogy wouldn't be complete without mentioning third-party payers though. Health insurance in the U.S. doesn't function like car or life insurance. Rather than providing catastrophic coverage and raising premiums based on client risk, health insurance subsidizes cost of care at the episodic level. This breeds overuse. It would be similar to someone giving you the PS3 at half the price when it just came out!
Pricing matters, whether its through premiums or taxes. When presidential candidates hint at universal health care, they should provide more than just hints about how much it will take out of your paycheck each time to support the high-end system we are fortunate to have in the U.S.
EDIT (12/14/07): PS3 sales have skyrocketed by 300% since the price changes in mid-October. Here's the article.