OK, I'm done debating this with you.

You seem to have an unfalisfiable belief that our mediocre health outcomes are due to problems in our general culture. In other words, all of the good outcomes are due to us having the highest quality healthcare, and all of the bad outcomes are due to culture.

I disagree. I believe that a) our healthcare system is part of our general culture and b) deficiencies in our healthcare system contribute to our health outcomes.

I don't think we'll bridge that gap in the HN comment section. Have a great weekend. Cheers.

US obesity rate: 36% Swedish obesity rate: 18%

US life expectancy: 79 years Sweden life expectancy: 81 years

It is falsifiable. When I talk about culture I'm talking about things like smoking rates, obesity rates, etc. These things are totally unrelated to whether or not you pay a copay to go to a doctor. If you think our relative life expectancy has nothing to do with our obesity rates, then I'm sorry but you just don't need to be making statements about healthcare at all.

It's weird that you're so fixated on obesity as the only driver of poor healthcare outcomes.

and smoking, which I specifically mentioned, and teen birth rates. I mean of course the biggest one is obesity since heart disease is the leading cause of death.

I hear ya. I think a healthcare system can affect smoking rates and obesity rates. You disagree.

Likewise, I disagree that "paying a copay to go to a doctor" is really the crux of the issue.

Maybe we'll meet one day by happenstance and have a richer discussion on this complicated topic. Have a good one.

You may be right. But our government still pays into healthcare as much as Sweden, but then we pay out of pocket on top of it. How much marginal value is gained from the huge expense?