If I were building a healthcare system, I'd be looking to France/Germany for a role model

Fine. Public transit usually loses money, too. I'm OK with all of that, because they're public goods, they're things that make life better for everyone in the city/county/region/country.

I don't expect government entities to make a profit; as long as they're run reasonably well (and they usually are), well, that's what taxes are for.

Key point from the article in your post:

> Controllable income, which takes into account operational expenses including compensation and benefits, excludes the $5.8 billion payment mandated by the government to prefund the agency's retirement benefits. > > Excluding the obligation, the Postal Service would have recorded net income of about $200 million in 2016.