A lot of people here in the US like to pretend that there is anything at all normal about the US healthcare system. But I’ve lived in other countries and I also have friends in various places around the world. And I can assure you that we have the dishonor of having the worst in the developed world.

It’s two things that allow them to believe this absolute delusion of how amazing and flawless the US healthcare system is. The first is status quo bias and the second is that they identify with the wealthy, who mostly support the current system. Perversely, this is true even if they themselves are not wealthy and would get the usual subpar health care and denial after denial if anything happened to them.It’s true that some countries (usually ones in decline, like the UK and Canada) have long wait times for some exams and procedures. I’ve yet to see anyone explain to me how that was better than denial of coverage, ruinous medical bills and general thievin’ at every layer of the US healthcare system.

When I was in the UK some years ago (before they had started to go downhill so severely), I mentioned to a friend of mine while we were at a pub that my stomach hurt pretty badly. She said if it kept hurting that we could “Pop over to a clinic down the avenue.” And I, being an American, balked — because in the US, there’d be a 2-10 hour wait, it’d cost $5,000 and it’d be just a general nightmare where I’d probably be misdiagnosed anyway.

She laughed and said the wait would be like 10 minutes, it’d cost at most £30, and they were very competent. I told her more about how the US healthcare system worked and she was appalled, as are people in most normal countries are when they hear how it is here. She said it sounded like we “lived like savages.” Which, you know, we do.

I think nearly everyone who is not rich has known someone murdered by the US healthcare system. I know of at least three, and as I’ve said before I don’t know many people.

We have the worst health care system in the world by far of any rich country, yet people still defend it to the death. Which they’ll probably receive if they go to any US hospital and then get denied coverage.