system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why are so many countries such as Germany, France, etc. able to implement universal healthcare, but the US can't?
gpt
Lots of people make a lot of money from health care. Many of the richest people would lose a lot of money if the system changes.

So they spend a lot of their riches to convince everyone else that any change in the system would be a disaster for everyone. Even though it would clearly be good for almost everyone.

But people make decisions more based on loss than gain. Frightening people is the best way to convince them, so there are lots of scary bedtime stories about why the systems that work everywhere else could never work in the incompetent USA.

In general, the Democrats scare you that Republicans will take away the health care you have, and Republicans scare you that Democrats will take away the health care you have. In reality, most of them don't care (Congress all get great government health care) as long as they keep getting millions of dollars from rich healthcare companies to continue causing the same very profitable fake arguments.

Most other developed countries with some version of universal health care spend less money per capita, have better outcomes, and longer life expectancies.

It's hard to argue against systems that cost less and produce better results, but the people in power have done a very good job convincing people that somehow it can't work in America.

Countries like Singapore, Japan, Switzerland, Italy - they usually spend less than half of what the USA *already* spends per person, and they have over five years more life expectancy. That's about the same as the gap between the USA and Syria or North Korea.