Do the other countries have a lower cost method of maintaining service, or is the patient charged the same, just not all at once (i.e., spread out over a lifetime of higher taxes)?

If there are cheaper ways of providing healthcare, what would have to change in the US to implement it?

For example, if there are three hospitals in a region, and they worked out an agreement among each other to not have overlap in specialized equipment (where hospital A sends all MRI patients to Hospital B just down the road), this is currently illegal (anti-collusion laws).

Another example -- a patient comes in with a headache. Well there could be a number of potentially fatal conditions that could be the cause, and due to liability reasons, they have to run tests to rule these out before giving the patient an aspirin (yes, this is an issue, in lower-income areas people go in for non-emergency issues that most likely doesn't need a doctor).

US healthcare costs are completely out of control compared to other modern nations. We pay 2-3x the cost of other nations for our care per capita. Primarily I would attribute that to other nations applying a universal healthcare principle, and in some form or other placing government controls on the prices of medical procedures and drugs. We pay more, and our life expectancy is shorter.

https://ourworldindata.org/the-link-between-life-expectancy-...

https://www.kff.org/health-costs/issue-brief/snapshots-healt...

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/health-costs-how-the-us-...

Other countries develop custom funding models based on a universal healthcare initiative. Basically, they find a way to pay for it, and they just do it.

This will never happen in the US, however, because the US is obsessed with concentrating power in private enterprise and refusing to fund social services. We have more than enough money to ensure the health and welfare of all of our citizens. We just don't actually care to do that, and would rather have rich companies and uneducated, sickly, indebted people.

Limitations on specialized equipment are enforced by many states:

http://www.ncsl.org/research/health/con-certificate-of-need-...

Sure they pay for it. It is called taxes, and it does come to thousands of dollars.

Yeah, instead US residents pay taxes so corporations can avoid them.

In America, instead of paying taxes for socialized healthcare, people pay 2 - 3 times more to corporations because it's the American way.

As a Canadian, I gladly fork over a few thousand a year to avoid tens to hundreds of thousands in one sitting should something horrible happen to mine/my family's health.