The top destinations for American "medical tourists" are Mexico, Thailand and India, where the Americans seeking medical services on those trips would be paying cash.
People in those "socialistic" healthcare systems of Western Europe and Canada that you love so much constitute the majority of medical tourists visiting the US.
What Michael Moore did not tell you in his Potempkin Village documentary of the Cuban medical system is that the typical Cubans go to squalid local hospitals not shown in the movie. Since Moore's crew and patients were not paying the Cuban government for the medical services that they received, unlike the typical American medical tourists going to Mexico, Thailand and India (where the payment help the local economy even more than the service itself), what Moor was doing was something between Genocide and taking candy from the proverbial baby.
Pharmaceuticals are cheaper overseas only because drug research is subsidized by Americans. The hospital you are using overseas are located in areas where expats concentrate; i.e. the better parts of the country (like the equivalent of Upper East Side or Upper West Side of Manhatten). Of course they are better than the average hospital of the country. You were not experiencing the months of waiting that is typical of local hospitals in Western Europe and Canada. Why do you think so many Western Europeans and Canadians come to the US for medical services?
Since you are so worked up about medical industry seeking profit, when was the last time you volunteered at a hospital or a pharmaceutical company? What makes you think Europeans and Canadians are the Socialist Newman donating their lives to "the Greater Good"? Why do you think the typical biotech and pharma company in the US is full of young interns from Europe? Since you don't volunteer yourself, but demand others to provide voluntary service (using government coercion if necessary), you are essentially advocating slavery.
There were indeed many problems in the American medical system, most of which were the result of earlier government meddling, especially that of LBJ. Obamacare is a step in the wrong direction, and will make it even worse.
