US healthcare expenditures are ludicrously high, because the US healthcare “system” is ludicrously inefficient by global standards.

US public healthcare expenditures are similar to what some developed countries with fully public universal healthcare have—and the private expenditures on top are more than the public costs.

People sometimes joke about the US having gaps in healthcare because of defense or other spending, but the fact is the US effectively pays vast amounts of money to create those gaps, rather than having them because of some resource constraints.