compared to the wealthiest and most developed countries in the world the u.s. spends the highest amount on health care but ranks last or almost last in all major categories like infant mortality life expectancy heart and lung disease rates and teen pregnancies in other words we pay the most and get the least our health care is so expensive that 25% of senior citizens end up declaring bankruptcy because they can't afford their medical expenses statistically speaking that means that one out of your four grandparents will go bankrupt trying to stay alive in this country researchers estimate that if the US healthcare system performed as well as the systems in Australia Japan or France we would have a hundred thousand fewer deaths in the US every year now we could compare countries all day but I want to focus on the most damaging part of the system which is the way that insurance companies operate because medical insurance is a for-profit industry insurance companies are going to do everything in their power to avoid paying for your health care their main motivation is higher profits not your well-being now what's interesting is that rejecting claims is kind of a clumsy way to increase profits the easiest way for insurers to increase profits is to simply not insure the people who need insurance the most other countries have already solved this problem in really interesting ways in Switzerland for example insurance companies have to redirect any profits they make towards reducing premiums for their customers in Germany health insurance companies are nonprofit organizations to begin with and if they happen to turn a profit the money has to get rolled over and applied towards providing services for the next year in many European countries for-profit insurance companies make money not from covering basic care but by upselling customers on supplemental coverage like eyeglasses dental care and luxurious hospital arrangements the bottom line is that in the u.s. for-profit health care incentivizes less care it bankrupts people who need care the most and it puts the u.s. at the bottom of the pack compared to every other industrialized nation so what can you do it's obviously a complicated problem and there's no perfect solution but currently the only major proposal that addresses the main flaws in this system is Bernie Sanders is Medicare for all plan which would have three major consequences number one it would reduce administrative costs which will immediately make health care less expensive two it will reduce the role of for-profit health insurance in our system which means no more bankruptcy filings for your grandma or GoFundMe campaigns for your second nephew and third we would guarantee health care as a right to all Americans which means more healthy and productive citizens contributing to our economy if we're going to continue to spend the most then let's actually make our system the best that it can be peace