While I am not one to subscribe to the "Europe does everything better"-style thinking of U.S. progressives, the reality is, in this particular field, there is absolutely no way to defend the U.S. system.
How much do you pay per month for health insurance where you live? (Or if you don't know, how much does your country spend per capita on healthcare?)
My wife and I pay way less than $500/month, but her employer pays some of it so I'm not sure what the total cost is. When I was looking for it on my state's healthcare exchange it was also considerably cheaper than $500/month, but then since I was unemployed at the time, it ended up being free.
Healthcare in the US is a real problem that needs to be resolved, but it's not a simple situation.
The US government spends around as much or more on healthcare per capita as any country with socialized healthcare. Every penny that you pay and your employer pays on your behalf is due to graft/rentseeking.
> How much do you pay per month for health insurance where you live? (Or if you don't know, how much does your country spend per capita on healthcare?)
The cost per capita in the US is apparently 85% than in Sweden [0] while the gdp per capita in the US is only around 27% more than in Sweden [1]. I'm not sure how current/accurate those numbers are, but they do fit in with everything I've read over the years.
> Healthcare in the US is a real problem that needs to be resolved, but it's not a simple situation.
I don't really understand this sentiment. There are so many other systems to look to for comparison. If you mean that powerful entrenched interests that would stand to make less money and they are hard to fight, then sure that's hard, but it's not like we don't know better systems. They are everywhere if we choose to look. I think the main problem is that too many Americans seem incapable of recognizing that the system there really is worse than many high-tax socialist countries. They don't really have any reason to believe this, but they know this deeply in their heart. It only hurts the US and plays into the hands of the aforementioned entrenched interests (which to be fair certainly work hard to propagate the lies that Americans later believe).
By the way, I'm both an American and Swedish citizen. I was born in Sweden, lived most of my life in the US, and am now back in Sweden. I definitely identify more as American than a Swede. In my experiences of the US and Swedish systems I'd take the Swedish one (i.e. the cheapest setup without any of the possible extra insurance which can be purchased extra here) over the US system any day of the week. I think the Americans who have knee-jerk reactions against "socialized medicine" are either totally ignorant or deluded. It's sad. Such self-defeating attitudes weaken American as a nation.
