system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why is the American healthcare system so expensive when most other places, it is relatively cheap?
gpt
Most places that have universal healthcare under a single-payer system have the government pay for it. 

This is, of course, funded by taxes. 

Here in the US, we don't have a single-payer system. There's no one organisation that can negotiate and limit medical care costs. There are various insurance agencies, and a lot of medical care is actually for-profit. While a lot of the profit comes from the insurance companies (even the local and federal government ones), a good deal of it is still passed down to the consumer. 

And yes, the fact that we're "consumers" rather than "patients" is part of the problem.