> don't understand why you don't get a proper, profit-free healthcare system. You spend the most on it in the world and don't get the greatest outcomes
American healthcare for the top 10 to 15% (about $150k+) is the best in the world. By a long shot. (The bottom ninety-something percent of the world's top 1% get their care here for a reason.)
Another 40% are covered by Medicare or Medicaid [1] which, while nothing to brag about, exceeds the median OECD healthcare experience.
That leaves half of the population with crappy employer-provided healthcare, the VA, scams or no insurance at all. For most of them, until they have an accident, this coverage is fine.
In summary, you have a system that works terrifically for the rich, well for the poor and old, and well enough for the rest that reform is challenging.
"In summary, you have a system that works ... well for the poor".
You don't actually know any poor people, do you? Their lives are not governed by your theoretical models.
And as the GP said, our healthcare - not the best of the best of our healthcare, as you cherrypicked, but the kind ordinary people have - is appalling overpriced for its mediocre quality.
American healthcare for the top 10 to 15% (about $150k+) is the best in the world. By a long shot. (The bottom ninety-something percent of the world's top 1% get their care here for a reason.)
Another 40% are covered by Medicare or Medicaid [1] which, while nothing to brag about, exceeds the median OECD healthcare experience.
That leaves half of the population with crappy employer-provided healthcare, the VA, scams or no insurance at all. For most of them, until they have an accident, this coverage is fine.
In summary, you have a system that works terrifically for the rich, well for the poor and old, and well enough for the rest that reform is challenging.
[1] https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2024/demo/p60-28...