Why Is America The Only Developed Nation With No Right To Healthcare?

[appalachiablue]

By Thom Hartmann, Daily Kos, June 17, 2021.

- There’s only one person in this photograph/video of last week’s G7 meeting who represents a country where an illness can destroy an entire family, leaving them bankrupt and homeless, with the repercussions of that sudden fall into poverty echoing down through generations.

Most Americans have no idea that the U.S. is quite literally 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.
The United States spends more on “healthcare” than any other country in the world: about 17% of GDP.

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%.

Health insurance premiums right now make up about 22% of all taxable payroll, whereas Medicare For All would run an estimated 10%. We are literally the only developed country in the world with an entire multi-billion-dollar for-profit industry devoted to parasitically extracting money from us to then turn over to healthcare providers on our behalf. The for-profit health insurance industry has attached itself to us like a giant, bloodsucking tick.

And it’s not like we haven’t tried. Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Jack Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson all proposed and made an effort to bring a national healthcare system to the United States. Here’s one example really worth watching (it’s 2 minutes and gets better as it goes along):...

More,
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/6/17/2035726/-Why-Is-America-the-Only-Developed-Nation-With-No-Right-To-Healthcare

[underpants]

1. We have a right to Capitalism dammit!

And don’t tell me it’s not in the Constitution 😡

[appalachiablue]

2. The Free Market rules!

[Blue Owl]

3. But you can get shot or buy a gun much easier in the U.S.A.

[appalachiablue]

4. Insanity

[Dustlawyer]

5. Because those with the biggest campaign (bribes) donations write the laws!

Until we get this money out of politics we will not be represented in Congress.

[DBoon]

6. legacy of slavery

a system where all labor is treated miserably, and any public benefit that might include the descendants of slaves is immediately quashed.

While slavery may be legally abolished, its philosophy of labor management remains.

[BigmanPigman]

8. That pretty much sums it up accurately.

[dalton99a]

7. Because corporate CEOs want their economic freedom