We pay for a single payer system, we just don't get it.
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_total_hea...
Perhaps more important, the US spends a bit more as a share of GDP on public healthcare than most developed countries with a mainly-public universal system. (And on top spends even more on private healthcare, but the combination still isn't a universal system.)
Per capita costs are going to be higher just because incomes are higher. But that doesn't explain per GDP costs being so high.
We also subsidize the most expensive people, including the elderly and people with cancer and AIDS. Plus, we directly subsidize hospitals in rural areas etc. It’s a giant flood of money.
I am saying even if you ignore paperwork costs and crazy bills, it’s still a vast sums of money often sent with minimal overhead. The VA for example is quite expensive though somewhat less so than the rest of US healthcare.
Non-profit insurance corporation that anyone can buy policies from. Shift existing medical systems over to the new one. Limit extension patents. Require dual-sourcing for FDA approval. Restrict charging more than 20% price difference between clients for the same medication/procedure. Require fiduciary efforts from insurance carriers in terms of negotiation.
It's a matter of a few legal shifts and some better policies allowing for more competition.
Which is why I view the situation as hopeless, but not serious.
And politics, do you mean US lobbying?
When you're developing most of the world's medical innovations, it should not be a surprise that we are the top spenders. For example, treatments like Car T-Cell therapy aren't cheap to develop or administer. Over time, those innovations will diffuse and they will become more available to less well off Americans and will become available to those outside America once cheap enough.