Free, universal healthcare does not exist in America.
Obamacare or (PPACA) Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, most certainly is not free. It's not like the NHS is here, where you go to see a doctor, or go to hospital, get treated and don't pay anything.
In America, you need health insurance because if you get ill and what not and receive treatment, you have to pay for it, but health insurance normally covers this.
In a Nutshell, the Affordable Care Act in America, does the following:-
- Offering Americans a number of new benefits, rights, and protections in regards to their healthcare
- Setting up a Health Insurance Marketplace (HealthCare.Gov) where Americans can purchase federally regulated and subsidized Health Insurance during open enrollment.
- Expanding Medicaid to all adults in many states.
- Improving Medicare for seniors and those with long-term disabilities.
- Expanding employer coverage to millions of employees.
- Requiring most people to have coverage each month from 2014 in order to get an exemption, or pay a fee.
- And introducing new taxes and tax breaks, among other provisions.
Source:
http://obamacarefacts.com/whatis-obamacare/
Those on the poverty line, still have to pay it but they get help to do so via a range of benefits. If people don't pay it, a fee is still taken by the IRS (US Equivalent to UK's HMRC) So call it a kind of Tax if you want.
So when Trump talks about ending Obamacare, he is talking about repealing the act, because the Affordable care Act (but not really), has caused massive hikes in fees and costs for it. People have seen, year on year rise on it and the rises are huge this year, we would see large scale riots if they introduced something like that over here. You talking of four figure type sums and these are monthly upfront costs, you are talking thousands of dollars per month.