- The other modernized nations you speak of are all running deficits, with the exception of small countries with tremendous natural resource wealth (e.g. Scandinavia) and Germany (which has a tremendous manufacturing sector that I don't fully understand.) That said, the US also is running huge deficits, but a lot of that is due to a ridiculously disproportionate military budget.
- Again, the profitability that comes to drug and device companies from the US market largely subsidizes the cost of these goods in other countries. Cut off the profitability in the US, and the costs for drugs and devices go up in every other market.
I would love to see a way for the US to be able to provide full healthcare coverage to all its citizens, but as someone with a graduate degree in healthcare economics who has studied the problem in depth, I just don't see it.
That said, we shouldn't be turning away the uninsured that need basic healthcare. We have to figure out a way to provide that coverage in a more efficient way than the ER.
