Bring definition to change! Why not look at other industrial democracies? They are also republics but their social systems are very different. They are in alphabetical order and include mostly developed, industrial democracies, but the list also includes some developing countries. The links will take you off site, often to the country's own website. There are also links to healthcare comparisons at the bottom of this page. Discuss with others about you find as possible solutions. Here's a link to the Discussion Menus.

Australia
Because other citizens of developed countries to tend to travel more, ask an Australian, or any other citizen from the developed world what they think of their legislated vacation time.  Ask others what they think their government's role should be in their lives.  When looking at their website, check out their first home saver account, created so that people can safely and smartly buy a home.  Perhaps different than the U.S. market? 
http://www.australia.gov.au/

Austria
Austria is located in the European continent, and is different from Australia, which is its own continent and is located in the southern hemisphere.
http://www.austria.gv.at/site/3327/Default.aspx
Austria - the Economics and Labor - for foreigners to learn more...
http://www.bmwa.gv.at/EN/default.htm

Belgium
In addition to being another European country, they also make good chocolate.
http://www.belgium.be/en/

Brunei
Developing countries that are joining the other industrial countries are creating social policy that is similar to the other developed countries. Scroll down to see more details on any of the ministries.  Notice that hey are quite polite about their website etiquette: "Kindly click any ministry below to visit the ministry's official website:-"
http://www.brunei.gov.bn/

Canada
Their headline reads "The True North Strong and Free"
http://canada.gc.ca/home.html
Interesting that they highlight "People helping people."  What does the website for the United States say?
http://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/en/home.shtml

Denmark
Denmark is also referred to as a Scandinavian country. 
http://www.denmark.dk/en

Ecuador
The Government of Ecuador just passed the rights of nature in their Constitution!  Talk about being truly green.  The website is in Spanish.
http://www.presidencia.gov.ec/

Here are some articles about this interesting development in English.

http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2008/09/ecuador
http://upsidedownworld.org/main/content/view/1494/1/
http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2008/09/03/ecuador

Finland
Finland is also one of the Scandinavian countries.
http://www.government.fi/etusivu/en.jsp

France
France has one of the best healthcare systems in the world.
http://www.premier-ministre.gouv.fr/en/

Germany
Information about Germany from Germany .  Look at many topics including Health and Education at your leisure.
http://www.deutschland.de/home.php?lang=2
Their health portal:
http://www.deutschland.de/rubrik.php?lang=2&category1=152&category2=153

Iceland
Only a republic since 1944, they cover their citizens with healthcare as well as healthcare in other parts of the developing world.  Perhaps they could sponsor a few Americans.  No wait, we already pay into our own medicare system.
http://www.iceland.org/securitycouncil/About-Iceland/

Ireland
Click on the Government Departments on the upper left hand side to learn more about the different sectors,  healthcare included.
http://www.irlgov.ie/

Luxembourg
This website is not in English, but if you know any of the romance languages, you'll be able to make sense of it.  You could instead take it into a translation site.
http://www.gouvernement.lu/index.html

The Netherlands
The government of the Netherlands, also known as Holland and the people are referred to as Dutch. They used to have full dental coverage, but the phenomena known as the revolving door has been spinning from the corporate-insurance world into the U.S. State Department. Once inside the State Department as a foreign diplomats, former corporate officers proceed to try to take apart other countries' social systems. Not so nice diplomacy?
http://www.government.nl/

New Zealand
Glance at their website and see what it includes, then compare it to the U.S. government website.
http://newzealand.govt.nz/

Norway
They are really serious about taking better care about the environment. 
http://www.regjeringen.no/en.html?id=4

Scotland
Interesting that they have a section called "Health and Community Care.
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Home

Spain
Spain is located on the Iberian Peninsula in Europe. They were the first European nation to claim the area known as the Americas. Here's more information on their current government policy.
http://www.la-moncloa.es/IDIOMAS/9/default.htm
Spain reformed their social programs in 1978.  Interesting. Government processes are dynamic and usually responds to the will of the people.
http://www.photius.com/countries/spain/society

Sweden
The Scandinavian countries do pay the highest average rate of taxes and do provide a very comprehensive list of services to their citizens.  Ask a Swedish person about their maternal and paternal leave.
http://www.sweden.gov.se/

Switzerland
When you look at websites from other countries, you also find really interesting information, for example, I didn't know what Switzerland represented Russia's diplomatic interests in Georgia.  I haven't heard of this in the U.S. media. How many official languages does Switzerland have?
http://www.admin.ch/index.html?lang=en

United Kingdom
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/index.htm

United States of America
Our government motto on the website is "Government Made Easy".  Orwellian or really true? What does that really mean? "Government Made Easy", because I have a few questions about who, or what entity, actually writes the laws. In school as a youngster, I learned that the legislators wrote the laws, but I've heard many of legislators say that they didn't have a chance to read the legislation before passing and helping to enact the law. So then, who is writing the laws? And what can we do about it?
http://www.usa.gov/

Please let me know if links are not working or if there are other countries that you'd like to see included.

Here are links to other healthcare systems:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_health_care

This article highlights the main differences between the different systems of healthcare between France, the U.S. and England .
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/08/13/opinion/eddutton.php

Healthcare: France came in first, while the U.S. came in last in providing quick and effective healthcare to its citizens.
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hGPrKA627R1svhAL7yih15Ap-bFg