By Martin H. Levinson

The US has the lowest life expectancy rate, the highest health care costs, and the greatest number of avoidable deaths of all wealthy, developed countries, which means America must be doing something right. That something is an understanding that longevity and staying well are hugely overrated. Americans know that health can’t buy happiness, only money can, which is why we are obsessed with getting and spending as much do-re-mi as we can.

Best to live fast and die young then linger for eighty or ninety years in a steadily declining physical state, a state many Americans will thankfully never reach as the US health care system makes lots of pharmaceutical drugs unaffordable, good medical insurance a luxury, and health education nonexistent. Health care in the United States is an example of American exceptionalism at its very best.

The US health insurance industry is stand-out exceptional, a bastion of cost-cutting pride through its strategies of charging sky high premiums, delaying and denying coverages, and wording policies in ways that only those with a PhD in linguistics can understand them. Health-insurance companies’ laser-like focus on profits for its shareholders and added costs for its customers has helped America maintain its position as a proud outlier in providing affordable, decent medical care to its citizens. By adding layers of administrative inefficiency and time-wasting paperwork the US health insurance industry is second to none in helping to shorten the life span of its policyholders, a goal other national health schemes can only dream of.

The American Medical Association (AMA) has done its bit to keep medical costs high by ensuring US medical schools do not train doctors in numbers needed to provide adequate medical services to the populace. This policy choice has been enforced by monopoly control of American medical schools, which has hindered the number of doctors they graduate. The aim of the AMA, unlike similar professional groups such as the American Bar Association, is to guarantee every medical school graduate will have a job when they complete their education. As keepers of the Hippocratic Oath, first do no harm, the AMA is pledged first and foremost to make sure no harm will befall its members by making sure the law of supply and demand works in their favor.

Imagine being sick and knowing you need to see a doctor, but the thought of a medical bill stops you in your tracks. This is the reality many Americans face today, as lots of people are underinsured or don’t have insurance. Sadly, that’s on them, since if they had made a bunch of money they could have bought top-flight medical insurance. We live in a capitalist society where there are winners and losers. Winners can afford good health care, losers can’t, which is why you want to be a winner. If you’re a loser you can always move to Sweden where everyone is a winner when it comes to health care but a loser in having to live in a socialist society where getting to old age and the infirmities it brings is a real possibility.

“Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man carefree, wealthy and wise.” That’s the original quote Benjamin Franklin published in Poor Richard’s Almanac. Ben understood America was all about the Benjamins, which is still the case today. Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow you may get sick and if you don’t have the dough to get good medical care, and your illness is a bad one you lucky dog, it could be the next world for you.