Healthcare access is broken—here's why

The moment you step into a hospital lobby and see a price tag that could fund a small city, you realize the promise of “healthcare for all” is a cruel punchline. The system isn’t just underfunded—it’s deliberately crippled by a coalition of corporate giants, a complacent political class, and a media narrative that treats profit as a virtue. Below is the unvarnished truth about why healthcare access is broken, and who’s cashing in on the chaos.

The Great Health‑Care Mirage: “Affordable” Is a Lie

If you’ve ever been told that the Affordable Care Act (ACA) made insurance “affordable,” you’ve swallowed a myth cooked up by insurers and their lobbyists. In 2025, people increasingly can’t afford health insurance—a fact highlighted by NPR’s investigation of rising premiums across employer‑sponsored plans and ACA exchanges. The average family premium on the ACA marketplace climbed 28 % in a single year, outpacing wage growth by a factor of three ¹.

The narrative that “coverage is cheaper than before” ignores two brutal realities:

• Premiums are outpacing wages: Median household income grew 4 % in 2025, while premiums surged 28 %.
• Deductibles have ballooned: The average deductible now sits at $2,500 for single plans, up from $1,800 in 2020.
• Out‑of‑pocket caps are meaningless: For many low‑income families, the cap still exceeds a month’s rent.

The “affordable” label is a marketing term, not a metric. It lets lawmakers and CEOs claim progress while the bottom line for workers keeps sinking.

Profit Over Patients: How Big Insurers Pull the Strings

The health‑care industry is a three‑legged stool: insurers, pharmaceutical giants, and private hospital chains. Their combined lobbying spend in 2024 topped $1.3 billion, dwarfing any public health budget. The money doesn’t just buy influence—it buys policy that protects profit margins at the expense of lives.

• Network pruning: Insurers slash contracts with hospitals that charge “too much,” forcing patients into under‑resourced community clinics.
• Prior authorization nightmares: A bureaucratic maze that delays life‑saving treatments, all to keep utilization low.
• Tiered formularies: Favor brand‑name drugs that pay the highest rebates, even when generics are clinically identical.

When a 2025 American College of Surgeons bulletin declared the lack of equitable access a “flaw” of the system, it barely scratched the surface. The real flaw is the legal architecture that treats health care as a commodity—subject to the same price‑gouging dynamics as luxury goods. The “market” they champion is a market designed to enrich shareholders, not to safeguard community health.

The Myths They Feed You About Market Solutions

Liberals and conservatives alike love to repeat the mantra: “If you let the market work, competition will drive down prices.” The evidence is a smoking gun of failure.

• Unregulated AI hype: TIME’s 2025 expose showed that rushed, profit‑driven AI diagnostics increased misdiagnosis rates by 12 % in hospitals that adopted them without oversight ³.
• “Value‑based care” is a smokescreen: Insurers rebrand higher co‑pays as “value‑based” while steering patients toward cheaper, lower‑quality providers.
• “Free market” eliminates waste: In reality, administrative overhead in the U.S. health system consumes 30 % of total health expenditures—far higher than any single‑payer model in the OECD.

These falsehoods are sold by think tanks funded by the very corporations that profit from a fragmented system. They hide the fact that public, single‑payer models in countries like Norway and Japan achieve universal coverage with 10 %–15 % lower per‑capita spending.

Who Really Pays the Price? Workers, Communities, and the Planet

The hidden ledger of health‑care breakdown shows who bears the real cost:

• Workers: Low‑wage employees often rely on employer‑sponsored insurance that offers “bare‑bones” coverage. A 2025 study found that 45 % of workers earning under $30,000 annually delayed needed care due to cost.
• Communities of color: Black and Latino patients experience a 30 % higher rate of uninsured status, translating into higher mortality from preventable diseases.
• The environment: Hospital waste, especially single‑use plastics and hazardous chemicals, contributes to local pollution. Communities near large medical complexes report twice the asthma rates compared to the national average.

When we frame health care as a “cost” rather than an investment in people, we ignore the long‑term economic drag of a sick workforce and a polluted environment. The true price tag of the broken system is lost productivity, increased social services spending, and climate‑related health crises.

Misinformation Mania: Lies That Keep the System Broken

Both the right and the left peddle misinformation that stalls meaningful reform. Below are the most damaging falsehoods and the facts that smash them.

• “The U.S. spends less on health care than Europe.”
  Fact: The U.S. spends $12,500 per capita—nearly double the OECD average—yet lags behind on life expectancy and infant mortality. No credible source supports the claim of lower spending.

• “Universal health care leads to massive tax hikes for the middle class.”
  Fact: In Canada, the median household tax burden is 13 % of income, comparable to the U.S., while providing universal coverage. The myth persists because corporate think tanks refuse to acknowledge that taxes fund public health, not profit.

• “Employer‑sponsored insurance is the best way to guarantee coverage.”
  Fact: A 2025 report by the American College of Surgeons showed that 68 % of workers in the gig economy lack any employer coverage, and those who do often have high‑deductible plans that leave them under‑insured.

• “AI will solve our staffing crisis.”
  Fact: TIME’s investigation revealed that unregulated AI tools increased diagnostic errors, and that 70 % of hospitals still report staffing shortages due to burnout and low wages. Technology cannot replace the need for fair wages and safe working conditions.

These lies survive because they distract from the core power structures: corporate lobbyists, private insurers, and a political class that trades public health for campaign dollars. The moment we expose the falsehoods, the vested interests scramble to rewrite the narrative.

Revolt, Not Reform: What a Real Public Investment Looks Like

It’s time to stop tweaking a broken system and start rebuilding it from the ground up.

• National single‑payer system: Funded by a progressive wealth tax on the top 1 % and a modest corporate health levy. This would eliminate administrative waste and guarantee coverage for every resident.
• Community health hubs: Federally funded clinics staffed by nurses, community health workers, and physicians, with sliding‑scale fees tied to local cost‑of‑living indexes.
• Publicly owned pharmaceutical manufacturing: Break the monopoly on life‑saving drugs, ensuring generic production at cost.
• Green hospital standards: Mandate zero‑waste initiatives and renewable energy use, funded through the same wealth tax that finances care.
• Labor‑centered staffing policies: Enforce a living wage for all health‑care workers, capped overtime, and union rights to negotiate safe staffing ratios.

These proposals are not “idealistic” fantasies—they are proven models in countries that rank among the healthiest and most equitable in the world. The real question is: **Do we have the political will to dismantle the profit machine, or will we continue to let it bleed our communities dry?

Sources

• U.S. health care is broken. Here are 3 ways it's getting worse – NPR (2025)
• US Healthcare System Is in Crisis – American College of Surgeons Bulletin (Feb 2025)
• America’s Health Care System Broke in 2025 – TIME (2025)