The United States is one of only two countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (highly industrialized advanced economies) that does not offer universal healthcare. The fallout from this omission is grave and costly. Ever wonder why the U.S. with only 5% of the world’s population has the highest number of both COVID cases and deaths? Start with the 89 million Americans who were under or uninsured as the pandemic hit. Add in the fact that one-third of COVID deaths (330,000) could be traced to the lack of health insurance and what you wind up with is a dysfunctional system that is the real threat to U.S. national security. With so many Americans sick and dying in a country without a robust universal healthcare system, how can anyone ever feel really safe? Shocking to think that the U.S. spends almost twice as much as its nearest competitor on healthcare ($4.1. trillion or almost 20% of GDP in 2019) yet the life expectancy of its people has declined 2% from 78.9 years in 2019 to 76.6 in 2021. Better to move to Sweden or Denmark and expect to live to 83. Even America’s BFF, the UK has a life expectancy of 81years. Want to know more about the difference in healthcare in America and the rest of the developed world and how it affects our calamitous COVID experience? Check out “The Road to National Healthcare Turns Out to be a Dead End.”
