He was pretty pro-Musk and pro-Peter Thiel and certainly wasn't a paragon of leftist thought. While being decently educated and well traveled, he seemed to have a lot of faith in technolibertarian ideals.

I'd say that's clear from his Twitter and Reddit histories. It doesn't mean he's a frothing-at-the-mouth MAGA nut, but it also doesn't mean he's a dyed-in-the-wool leftist who understands the issues.

Further, like most people, he only became radicalized when a serious injury impacted his own life. It didn't make him question the whole system of capitalism, just healthcare.

And all that's fine and not meant to be an indictment one way or another about the guy, but more it's meant to point out that like most Americans, he's seemingly a little confused about larger issues. Which also makes sense since he's only 26, learning about it all takes time.

Finally, I'm still not 100% convinced a bunch of this is just contrived police bullshit to pin it on a patsy, and that's why his motives seem confused. Although I wouldn't be surprised if he's just lacking education and confused, like most Americans.

I always dislike this take because it pretends the US doesn't have this exact issue. I've known people with less than ideal insurance who had very few doctors to pick from in-network and would take months to get an appointment.

Long wait times still happens in the US. Just like it can happen in public healthcare.

Pedant rant:

I take issue with 'needs a lot of work', though it is common phrasing. It promotes the false idea that 'business is more efficient' by making it sound like the public administrators are too dumb to know how to do their job.

The real issue, in most jurisdictions, is that it needs more and stable funding, and less political interference.

True ... even here in Canada social systems are not as good as they could be ... but imagine trying to access shitty social services AND PAYING FOR MEDICAL SERVICES... or worse being in over your head because of medical debt!

You have to wait in the US too, but we pretend our times are better.

It's a free country ... as long as you can afford it

.... and also ...

“That's why they call it the American Dream, because you have to be asleep to believe it.” - George Carlin

If you're self-employed entrepreneur then it'd be a personal bankruptcy most of the time in Finland. Having an LLC or such thing for such use isn't common.

Yes of course,

I replied to this post because it is one of many making bold claims about healthcare in other countries than the US, most of the times claims about European countries healthcare made by US users are false and/or misleading.

Sure the US has a very bad system, I see it and recognize how bad it is, but it's a tad annoying to see stuff like that, that falsely say we have "0" bankruptcy or that "everything" is covered by public healthcare, that our life expectancy is that much higher, etc... Most claims are unsourced and blatantly false or largely inflated for shock value.

In France for example we have many issues with our public healthcare, not everything is covered (dental isn't for example), we aren't covered for the full amount unless we pay for private coverage on top (called "mutuelle") which often are linked to your employer, we have to pay up front and then get reimbursed later, geographically there are areas with very few hospitals, the poorer often can't afford to be sick because we aren't always automatically paid for sick days at work, there's a shortage of medical fields' workers, and our current political leaders have been making it worse for decades..

All that to say that from the perspective of a "European" citizen, these posts about the US system compared with ours feels like propaganda that "we should be happy with what we have" even though we really shouldn't, using false information.