Somebody Get Me A Doctor!

I know some Republicans. I have friends who are Republicans, but I confess that we tend not to discuss politics because it makes the whole friendship thing harder to manage. Most of the people I associate with on a regular basis are like-minded, left-leaning Democrat types. That gives me comfort at some level, but it makes getting a full understanding of some of our domestic problems difficult. Yesterday morning in the shower I tried to come up with arguments against socialized medicine, just to test my own mettle: How do I feel about paying for everybody else's medical bills? Do I really want another layer of government bureaucracy affecting my family's health care? Do I want the government to decide my health care options? Do I want to stand in line for health care?
The answer to all these questions in the right-leaning part of my brain, not to be confused with the right side of my brain which wouldn't necessarily have to lean right since it was already on that side, is a resounding "no." Not with an exclamation point, but resounding nonetheless. What then, asks the temporarily vanquished left-leaning portion, can be done to fix the health care system that already exists here in the United States? What about all those other "Commie Pinko Countries with Socialized Medicine?" And why can't we get the metric system?
To be sure, there are Republicans out there hard at work reforming our Health Care System. There are also Democrats out there hard at work preserving the rights of gun owners. What's missing is the common ground. How to solve a problem that affects every person in the United States of America? Maybe it's just too hard to get all worked up about a problem that you don't have yourself. Meanwhile, I'll go back to trying to solve the problem of common ground, at least in my own mind.