> I start with this - every person working in your hospital or clinic has no incentive whatsoever for you to emerge healthier. The only goal is to maximize the

> I start with this - every person working in your hospital or clinic has no incentive whatsoever for you to emerge healthier. The only goal is to maximize the ratio between the amount your insurance is willing to pay, and the amount of care that is provided. This is the gist of American healthcare. A good read from someone who had a medical crisis, from a series of medical errors, is "Our Malady" by Timothy Snyder. He took great notes in his personal diary when the whole ordeal occurred and was able to trace back the errors, unlike most people. He also nearly died. He is a renowned American historian who is a scholar of European history, and particularly of eastern European history. Anyways, the third leading cause of death in the US is believed to be preventable medical errors (you can also google "3rd leading cause of death preventable medical errors" and find other sources which corroborate the findings of this peer-reviewed journal article): https://www.bmj.com/content/353/bmj.i2139 https://www.bmj.com/content/353/bmj.i2139 When it comes to longevity of the human lifespan, as in life expectancy, by country, the US is about to soon mirror Croatia (I am a dual US|EU [Croatian] citizen). You know, that war-torn eastern European country that went through a nasty war in the 90s. Anyways, I am proud of my country, I mean Croatia. But, as Americans, we should be ashamed. U.S. life expectancy will soon be on par with Mexico’s and the Czech Republic’s: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2017/02/21/us-life-expectancy-will-soon-be-on-par-with-mexicos-and-croatias/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2017/0... (non-paywalled version: https://archive.md/3EpBi https://archive.md/3EpBi) Anyways, there are countries with national health insurance ("socialized medicine") and there are also countries that have universal health insurance coverage (guaranteed issue health insurance, which you are required to have under law). From an access perspective Germany is very similar to the US, and has universal health insurance coverage. Switzerland has a system closer to what we have in the US, with respect to both access and privitization, and they do not seem to be having the problems that we have in the American healthcare system. Just some food for thought...