Yes, yes, America has terrible health care — even a tech podcast says so — while paying an order of magnitude more for it than other rich countries. But hear me out: what if the costs are so high because Americans are (unsuccessfully) trying to buy their way out of poor policy decisions, from dependence on cars, to the early 2000s' promotion of opioids, to the widespread availability of cheap but nutrient-less calories, and no amount of fiddling with who pays for what in healthcare will be able to fix that?

Which is to say: it’s fine to look at specific costs and specific outcomes — I have done so myself — but what exactly is the action item after reading a report like The Commonwealth Fund’s cited by Ars Technica?