The hidden costs of greed: Why federal surveillance and socialized healthcare are the only path for the United States
st. Louis, Missouri (Stl.News) For decades, Americans have been said to be “the best in the world” in their healthcare system (expensive, fragmented, deeply complex). But beneath that marketing veneer is a nasty truth. US healthcare is one of the biggest drugs in the economy, a factor of inequality, and an industry consumed by greed that is still not run sustainably.
The evidence is overwhelming. The US spends nearly 20% of its GDP on healthcare, which is significantly higher than the average in other developed countries. However, it is not ranked in outcomes such as life expectancy, maternal health, chronic disease management, and more. While hospitals, insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies extract record profits, the system is full of waste, fraud and management bloat.
This contradiction raises a central question. How can we provide that it is expensive, mostly offered, and that many still operate without meaningful federal oversight? More importantly, what do we have to do to fix it?
The answer is becoming more and more clear. Federal intervention and a socialized health system that prioritizes health over profits.
Healthcare as a resistance to the economy
The US spends more than $4.5 trillion per year on healthcare, with the forecast cost of maintaining a rise faster than inflation. Looking at it, the US spends about twice as much health care per person in other wealthy countries, such as Germany, France and Canada. However, these countries have achieved better results at half the price.
This bloated system creates ripple effects across the economy.
Business Competitiveness: American companies pay higher costs to ensure workers and increase the prices of US goods and services in the global market. Wage control: Employers offset rising health insurance premiums by freezes wages and contribute to the growth of workers' stagnant income over decades. Household debt: Medical debt is the main cause of US bankruptcy, undermining consumer confidence and promoting financial instability.
Instead of fostering innovation and prosperity, healthcare costs have become a massive economic sinkhole.
No monitoring system
Banking, utilities, or transport (unlike industries subject to federal standards and monitoring, Healthcare operates freely, with little regulation.
Insurance companies will direct what care is covered, but regulators provide little protection against refusal of treatment. Hospitals set prices arbitrarily, and often charge 10 times more patients than the actual cost of service. Pharmaceutical companies are life-saving drugs like insulin, which cost ten times more overseas in the US, and are not checked to raise drug prices.
This patchwork system promotes exploitation rather than accountability. All players have incentives to maximize profits, but patients (the expected “customers”) have little transparency, no negotiation power, and limited alternatives remain.
The role of desire
The core of this crisis is greed. Healthcare is no longer about healing or preventing illness. It was converted into a profit maximizing machine.
Executives in major hospital systems often receive seven-figure pay, while rural hospitals close at an astonishing rate. The insurance giant raises premiums and keeps its network narrower while recording record profits quarterly. Pharmaceutical companies will raise prices for existing drugs without paying for research to justify the hike.
This results in moral and economic failures. Patients pay more, receive less and are treated as a source of income rather than a human.
“Profitability” irony
Despite its enormous costs, the system is not even efficient to make money. Many hospitals operate at a thin margin of razors, with hundreds of rural hospitals closed over the past decade. Doctors burn out, insurance companies constantly shift risks, and healthcare providers compete for refunds.
This creates a paradox. Healthcare is one of the most expensive sectors of the economy and one of the most stable sectors. The lack of sustainability suggests that the model itself is flawed.
Why federal intervention is necessary
The United States has reached a turning point. Incremental reforms failed. Affordable Care Acts have expanded coverage, but retained the underlying cost structure. Price transparency rules exist on paper, but are widely ignored. The state experiments with reforms, but cannot stand up to the national scale of the crisis.
Only federal intervention can reset the system. Just as the federal government has established Social Security, Medicare and national labor laws in response to past crises, we now have to face health care with the same resolve.
Federal oversight means:
Universal Coverage: Guaranteed all American access to healthcare as a right, not a privilege. Cost Management: Setting national price limits for drugs, procedures and premiums. Efficiency obligations: management, elimination of redundant claims, reduction of waste. Access Equity: Ensure rural hospitals, urban clinics, and underserved communities receive stable funding.
In the case of socialized health care
Socialized medicine is not a radical experiment. It is a global standard. Countries such as Canada, the UK, France, and Japan that have a system of socialisation or single payers will achieve far fewer, better results and maintain longer life expectations.
Critics often warn that socialized systems lead to distribution and long waits. However, distribution already exists in the US. It is distributed by price and insurance denial. There, millions of Americans are skipping treatments because they can't afford it.
Socialized healthcare eliminates this financial gatekeeping by making care a public good, like police, fire or public education. The selection will not end. Rather, it ensures that everyone has a fair starting point for care.
The economic benefits of socialized healthcare
Far from the burden, a socialized healthcare system could be an engine of economic growth.
Reducing business costs: Employers are not responsible for insuring workers, making our business globally competitive. Increased wages: Health insurance from pay ledgers allowed workers to see higher direct compensation. Decreasing debt: Eliminating medical bankruptcy will stabilize household finances and increase consumer spending. Innovation in Care: Freed from billing complexity, doctors and hospitals can focus on outcomes and efficiency.
In short, socialized healthcare will repay billions of dollars at hidden costs from families and businesses, encouraging a stronger, more resilient economy.
Moral orders
Beyond economics, healthcare reform is a moral issue. Developed countries should not embrace a system in which people die from insulin shortages, avoid emergency rooms and avoid debts, or be forced into bankruptcy after a cancer diagnosis.
The US health care system has become a monument to greed, a fortress built to protect interests rather than patients. Federal government action only – bold, swept, and non-apology, can demolish that fortress and rebuild it around fairness, efficiency and compassion.
Conclusion: The time for federal government action is now
The United States is at a crossroads. One path goes deeper into inefficiency, rising costs and worsening inequality. The other leads to equity, sustainability and economic renewal through socialized medicine.
History shows that crises often cause change. Just as Great Repression sparked Social Security, today's healthcare crisis must trigger universal healthcare reforms overseen by the federal government.
Choices are no longer about ideology. It is about the survival of families, businesses and the American economy itself.
The time for discussion has passed. It's time for federal intervention.
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