Do the countries you're referring to have the geographic size, population size, diversity, polarization, and the military responsibilities that the US has?
> geographic size
That might matter for things like transportation infrastructure, but surely being graphically large doesn't make healthcare, schooling or housing harder? At worst, it's surely irrelevant, and at best it might even be an advantage for some of those?
> population size
I ask another commenter about this here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23518452
> diversity
How does this matter?
> military responsibilities
Arguably, the US is spending far more on the military than her responsibilities necessitate.
The diversity of the population matters because, for example, different cultural practices result in many different health impacts that result in a more diverse set of healthcare challenges aside from the technical ones. Even something as seemingly simple as patients being able to effectively communicate their health issues and healthcare providers being able to understand these needs is a challenge due to cultural barriers. We can make specific comparisons, but in general EU countries populations are more homogeneous than the U.S. [2]. There is significant challenge to be able to train and maintain a healthcare work force that can understand needs of a diverse population.
I'm not sure how spending on military affects healthcare directly either, but the VA program is definitely a factor in how the US spends on healthcare.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_density#/media/File...
[2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2013/05/16...
That would perhaps be a valid starting point for further discussions if the urban parts of the US had a good healthcare system.
> The diversity of the population matters because, for example, different cultural practices result in many different health impacts that result in a more diverse set of healthcare challenges aside from the technical ones.
Citation needed! This is just armchairing.
They aren't disjoint systems. The increased cost of serving rural areas directly impacts urban areas as well. They share Federal funding. Actually comparing whether or not cities have have better healthcare systems than rural areas is much better than trying to define whatever "good" means. And yes in terms of access to specialists and emergency care, they definitely do.
>Citation needed! This is just armchairing.
Sure.
https://patientengagementhit.com/news/cultural-barriers-limi...
https://patientengagementhit.com/news/understanding-national...