The US healthcare system is deeply burdened with the flow of money between all parties involved in it. Money is integral to the system like the blood in our vei

The US healthcare system is deeply burdened with the flow of money between all parties involved in it. Money is integral to the system like the blood in our veins. Without blood pumping (money flowing), the system as it exists today dies. How Americans obtain health insurance is largely dependent on their age/occupation (retired, coverage thru employer, etc) and income/assets. There is strong incentive to be insured to avoid a yearly tax penalty. People with low income qualify for partial or full subsidy of their insurance cost, largely footed by more fortunate tax- and insurance-paying Americans. But unless they are poor, they are still expected to pay for services rendered out of their deductible, a fixed ceiling in USD that they agreed upon with their insurer (a higher deductible tends to lower insurance cost). Having insurance also significantly reduces the "retail" cost of services and medicine (an uninsured billionaire may happily pay $250,000 cash for an ER visit, while an insured student may struggle to pay their $2,500 deductible for the same thing). One upside to Obamacare is that it has taken a lot of stress away from people, as they historically could have become destitute from massive healthcare bills that overran obscenely high deductibles (now capped under Obamacare). Pre-Obamacare, insurers had a deductible of their own sort, one which allowed them to deem an overrun so high, or a health condition so dire, that they could cut a person off (sort of like a bandwidth cap, but for human life, a lifewidth cap if you will). One (primarily financial) downside to Obamacare is that insurance costs have increased to pay into the subsidy and sky-high bill bucket (and the leftovers into for-profit insurance companies' pockets). So Obamacare, i.e. American healthcare today, is largely an effort to not only insure every American, but also protect them from financial ruin in a health crisis. And to accomplish that, the money must be flowing. We certainly have a lot of amazing selfless people doing their best to heal the sick, but as the players in this article, people like Shkreli, and some of our congress members make so clear, follow the money trail to its darkest depths and you will find the true face of American healthcare. It's being stymied at every turn and will continue to be until it's either rescued by reform or decimated by profiteers. This barely touches on your questions and leaves out some critical details but I hope it's of some use.