[dragonwriter]

> Every other country on the planet have lower health care costs than the US by a large margin.

To put it in concrete terms, of OECD countries (comparable non-OECD data is harder to get), the #2 country in per capita healthcare spending (Switzerland) spends about 72% of what the US does per capita.

> US public healthcare spending alone, excluding private payments and insurance, places the US in the top 20, possibly top 10, in government spending on healthcare.

Again, to provide some concrete numbers, in the OECD, the US is #3 (behind Norway and Netherlands) in per capita public healthcare spending.

It also has the second highest proportion (52%, just barely behind Chile) of total healthcare expenses that are private, rather than public.