You can. You are the richest nation on the planet.What a not well thought out, emotionally charged response. You present a false dichotomy - suggesting that the only choices are either universal healthcare or a system that is cruel, profit-driven, and indifferent to human suffering. The reality is far more complex.
Healthcare is not just a “right”. It is far more complex than that. You can’t just turn on universal healthcare without massive trade offs. We are 40b in debt. We can’t add another 70b and plunge everyone into economic chaos in order to save some dad dying of cancer. I will always take the 80/20 principle on implementing policies.
You are a tiny country by population and don’t have the same burdens as the US. You can implement things like this contingent your economy doesn’t fail.
And again. You are placing profit above people. Just own it. Just say "I think poorer people should die, and be worse off, so I can be better off, because I think I am better than them"
Implementation is easy. Gradually increase in Medicare eligibility, coupled with price controls on services, malpractice tort reform, and the rest sorts itself out in the market. Insurance companies adjust, drug companies adjust(they are lying to you, most drug research is done via govt grants through university research. Or to their own facilities), over the course of 10-20 years tops.
Start with coverage to kids. Cover to age 18. Then gradually up the age. They are actually the cheaper medical expense ones, generally needing less, and also have the least income and need more help with that.
It's just political will. It can be done. And all the money both businesses and individuals pay to insurance companies and providers who overcharge will easily balance it out. It will in fact cost less. Numbers don't lie.
But insurance companies do. Drug companies do. CEO's do. And politicians at the behest of donors do.