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You have a point, to an extent. Coverage and welfare state benefit programs have continued to move considerably higher however. The US is now at the OECD middle on its welfare state spending as a percentage of GDP.

Half of Americans receive coverage via the government in some form. 70 million Americans are on Medicaid & CHIP (~22% of the population). Then you have Medicare, VA, SS disability, numerous state & smaller federal programs, and then partial subsidies via the ACA.

If you make minimum wage in the US, you're going to qualify for free healthcare in nearly all states via Medicaid. Via the ACA, the cost with subsidization when you're a little bit higher economically still comes out to tens of dollars per month (which is not a terrible price given how expensive healthcare is in the US, although the coverage is still not what it should be).

The bottom 25% is mostly able to get free or cheap healthcare. The next 25% bracket gets frequently royally screwed, they're stuck in a bad spot and often bounce in and out of having coverage. The top ~50% are covered by their employers commonly.




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