Great question. On the face of it, it's inexplicable, but I think perhaps the self-interest lobby got organised a long time ago and have worked to indoctrinate many people, and bribe many people, and set up this bizarre Pavlovian reaction so that healthcare according to clinical need is immediately and unthinkingly denounced as too terrible to contemplate. But too terrible for whom? For the multi-billionaire (and wtf needs even one billion, let along multi) who might have to delay installing the spare set of gold taps in the 2nd bathroom of their 6th yacht.

I also think the running down of education in several states is a lot to blame - not enough people can think critically and assess actual evidence.