This should put US healthcare spending as opposed to the rest of the developed world in perspective. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/how-much-do-oecd-countries-spend-on-healthcare/
I have a story that may help some people understand what happens when government manages health insurance. My wife and I are medicare recipients and both of us have private insurance to cover the parts of medical costs not covered by medicare. To help understand, the best choice of medicare supplement for most people is called the Medicare Advantage and it is available in one way or another from all the health insurance companies. Here is how it works. Medicare part B is the coverage for medical care that occurs outside the hospital. the government pays 80% and the patient pays the other 20%. The private policies cover that 20% and a few other things. The government turns over the Medicare Advantage patient's part B monthly payment to the health insurance company and the insurance covers all the part B expenses rather than the government. In other words part B becomes privatized with these plans. So the cost for the Medicare Advantage plan is what?. In my wife's case it costs nothing. In fact she is getting a $40 per month rebate to her part B premium. In other words she gets 100% coverage of part B and pays a lower part B premium than she did before she accepted the plan. The part B premium was theoretically enough to cover 80% of costs when managed by the government. With the insurance company covering things it covers 100% and costs $40 less per month. It is profitable enough for the insurance company that it provides other benefits I won't get into here. My plan is different. I also have part D coverage which takes care of some of the costs for prescription drugs. For that I pay $180 per year and, since I use generic drugs, there is no co-payment. I get the six drugs I use daily for $180 per year. The rest of the Advantage plan is provided at no cost by the insurance company just as it is for my wife. The insurance company is doing just fine by managing the coverage better than the government or, at least, less expensively than the government. Sorry if I confused anyone. Medicare is a government program and, like all government programs, is complicated and hard to understand. My point is the moving health care to government will increase the cost to society by a lot. It always does. Never fall for the idea of saving money by moving something into government.
