Here is a grim reality for the wealthiest country on the planet: Americans are more likely to die young, and from avoidable causes, than residents of any other high-income nation.

And that’s just the beginning of the bad news. The U.S. has the highest rate of people with multiple chronic health conditions, the highest death rate for avoidable or treatable conditions, the highest obesity rate, the highest infant mortality rate and and the lowest life expectancy for newborns.

And yet we are No. 1 in the world for health care spending. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, in 2022, the U.S. spent an average of $13,493 on each citizen. That’s 18% of our GDP, and nearly twice the amount spent by the average OECD country: two times higher than Germany and four times higher than South Korea, New Zealand or Japan, for example.

What’s going on? We know two things: There is plenty of money available circulating in and out of our health care system, and it is not being used to improve the health of our citizenry.

Where is the money going? Privatized insurance and large corporate hospitals. According to a recent column in The Colorado Sun, “the insurance, drug, pharmacy benefit manager, hospital chain and durable medical equipment corporations have in effect become a price-fixing cartel.”

How did we get here?

During World War II, employers began offering health insurance to attract good workers. Labor unions saw an opportunity to negotiate a better situation making health insurance a workplace benefit. During the Reagan administration, public sentiment was subtly shaped to be suspect of anything the government provided. This accelerated the impression that private programs were more trustworthy than government programs. Bureaucracy flourished. Healthcare prices skyrocketed.

We seem like chumps, don’t we? We pay more and get less. There are successful alternatives proven across the globe. We need to demand our decision makers put people first and profit last.

The U.S. is the only high-income country that neither acknowledges health care as a right nor guarantees health care for its citizens. When will we insist on change?

Melissa Hampton
Steamboat Springs