College education spending is also very high, as public colleges and universities are highly subsidized (typically an in-state student only pays about 1/3 to 1/4 of total costs, which is why out-of-state is more expensive) [2]. Keep in mind, low income students are eligible for Pell grants. There's a lot of federal and state funding of research, etc.
I would wager U.S. is among the highest in per capita spending for education.
[1] https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2019/school-s...). [2] https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-co...
In healthcare, for example, we have created specific socialized programs for each at-risk population: VA for veterans, Medicare for the elderly, Medicaid for the poor, and CHIP for children. Meanwhile, everyone else is forced to enter the private marketplace.
In education, we’ve drawn lines which make a “per capita” number meaningless. If I spend $15k on one kid and $5k on another, my per capita spending is $10k. That doesn’t tell me anything about the spending each kid received. When you mostly fund schools through local property taxes, areas with higher property values can afford better schools. If spending didn’t matter, we wouldn’t consistently see the richest areas spending the most. They obviously see a correlation between the spending and student success.
The US made up 33% of revenue of pharmaceutical companies in 2017, 50% more than 15 Western Europe countries combined. [0] One may argue that pharma companies use US revenue to subside their cost elsewhere.
The US spent $4.7T on healthcare in 2018, of those 40% were paid by Medicare and Medicaid. In general more than 70% are from federal and state governments, employers and other non-household sources, the rest is out of personal pocket.
So no, there's been enormous government support healthcare spending in the US. The issue is efficiency.
[0] - https://www.statista.com/statistics/784420/share-of-worldwid...
[1] - https://www.cms.gov/Research-Statistics-Data-and-Systems/Sta...