Aussie here. Very few employers here offer health plans. Medicare is more or less like NHS in the UK. If you earn more than a certain amount, you have to pay for your own private health insurance. It is significantly cheaper than in the US. Source: myself

> If you earn more than a certain amount, you have to pay for your own private health insurance

Do you fall back into Medicare if you start earning less afterwards?

You don’t actually have to pay for your own, but you are taxed an extra 0.5% if you don’t and earn above a certain amount. So in practice rather than pay the additional tax, people get private healthcare. If you then start earning below the threshold you can cancel the private healthcare and go back to the public system.

Slight correction, you have to pay a levy if you earn over ~90k/year and don’t have private hospital cover.

"How will we pay for universal healthcare???"

By massive inefficiencies being removed from our economy.

Also, it'll literally be cheaper if you look at any other country that has implemented it.

There will be a huge wave of innovation whenever the USA implements nationalized healthcare.

I think the current housing crisis in the US should lead to a new social pact, but I don't see any movement towards one.

I just don't understand why citizens of such a rich country would want to live so precariously.

yeah it isn't just that it creates stress, bankruptcy, and suffering, it's genuinely an impediment to upgrading jobs and entrepreneurship.