America’s healthcare problem is not greedy insurers but a stupid system

Healthcare should not depend on employment - and other ruminations on the murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO

The unseemly snark over the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson needs discussing. Some wonder what’s wrong with American society; some see a wakeup call for greedy health insurers. Both miss the point. The problem is not the companies but the system, whose foolishness is very clear to those, like me, who have spent decades abroad.

Almost every other economically developed democracy offers citizens baseline health insurance that guarantees most necessary medical procedures will be accessible and either free or highly affordable with a minimum of bureaucracy. There’s little quibbling; people accept they’ll need this one day and so don’t mind the taxman. Sure, the issue is complex, medical treatment options can be subjective, not everything works well and finances can go awry. But developed countries have largely made it work, and the people are grateful.

Except in the United States.

The United States boasts some of the best doctors, cutting-edge medical institutions, and unparalleled research facilities in the world—but many of its people struggle to access all this. Other countries deliver better outcomes at a fraction of the cost, yet American politicians have convinced people that the dysfunction is unfixable. Their tool is an unhelpful skepticism about the state, which Americans call “the government.”

One fellow expat, a Texan who was proudly Republican, loved the famous quip about the most terrifying words in the English language being “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.” Surely you agree that the state should provide every 6-year-old with a first-grade education, I tried. “Sure!” he replied. “As long as their parents can pay for it!” He wasn’t kidding. What he was, of course, was rich.