Halfway through Frontline: Sick Around the World. Reviewed 4 other healthcare systems besides the US. Seen UK, Japan, Germany. USA ranks 37 in healthcare from the World Health Organization in terms of quality and fairness.
1) Healthcare designed to be used frequently end up keeping people healthier and are lower in total costs for government per capita and end-users. They lower cost by market forces through increasing supply of users or through government regulation causing lower prices which increases supply. This eliminates or significant reduces profits for healthcare insurance companies, however administrators and doctors can still be well paid while investors lose an industry to invest in. Japan at the time had taken price regulation to the extreme ($10 hospital stays, $5 to stich a 3 inch wound) to the point where 50% of their hospitals were in serious debt instead of breaking even. At the time of the film they were going to increase prices so hospitals could break even.
2) In other countries the majority believe that the healthy and employed should take care of the sick and unemployed. I can reinforce this with my time in France, Italy and Peru. This means people do not go bankrupt from paying for healthcare.
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