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erronis

(24,533 posts)
Sun Jul 6, 2025, 10:21 AM Jul 2025

The American Dream requires a healthy populace who aren't crushed by medical costs -- Thom Hartmann [View all]

https://hartmannreport.com/p/chapter-11-the-american-dream-requires

The United States is the only country in the developed world that doesn’t define healthcare as an absolute right for all of its citizens.

That’s it. We’re the only one left. We’re the only country in the developed world where somebody getting sick can leave a family bankrupt, destitute, and homeless.

A half-million American families are wiped out every year so completely that they must lose everything and declare bankruptcy just because somebody got sick. The number of health-expense-related bankruptcies in all the other developed countries in the world combined is zero.

Yet the United States spends more on “healthcare” than any other country in the world: about 17% of GDP.[cxxxii]

Switzerland, Germany, France, Sweden and Japan all average around 11%, and Canada, Denmark, Belgium, Austria, Norway, Netherlands, United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia all come in between 9.3% and 10.5%.[cxxxiii]

Health insurance premiums right now make up about 22% of all taxable payroll (and don’t even cover all working people), whereas Medicare For All would run an estimated 10% and would cover every man, woman, and child in America.[cxxxiv]

How and why are Americans being played for such suckers?

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