If one gym had a yearly fee of $40 and then cost $1 every time you went, and another gym had a $8 yearly fee and cost $15 everytime you went, it wouldn't make sense to compare them merely on the per-visit costs.
Just to short circuit, I'm not trying to defend the American healthcare system. American healthcare is horrible on average compared to the average of other rich nations.
Also, a final note, but even if you have cheap out of pocket expenses, you aren't getting good value for your money if you don't visit a doctor for almost a decade. (Yes, I did e-stalk you for 60s to try to see what country to figure out average tax burden for healthvare, and ran across that fact on your intermittent fasting post)
There's plenty of reasons for that.
[1] https://grattan.edu.au/news/more-expensive-but-less-effectiv...
[2] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/universal-health-...
[3] https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2...
Our sales taxes are a little higher than a lot of the states, though.
I’ll take that over the amount of money and time the US healthcare system siphoned off of me when I was healthy.
I'm willing to pay a little more in the long term to have the peace of mind that I can go to the doctor for something less than an emergency and not face financial hardship. In the US, one doctors visit can easily cost more than 10 years of bills in a European nation, and it doesn't even have to be serious! A broken leg isn't life threatening, but it could break you financially if you aren't ready and able to shell out your high deductible.