>but the majority of middle-class Americans are poorer than people in the Southeast Asian backwater I’m from
Source? I find this hard to believe given the US leads the OECD in terms of household disposable income[1], never mind whatever "Southeast Asian backwater" country you're talking about. It's unlikely "US healthcare profiteering" would affect this. Healthcare spending in the US is 17.6% of GDP, which provides an upper limit on how much it can eat into income. Even if you assume all that's borne by households and subtract that from income figures, the US would still be in #2.
Source? I find this hard to believe given the US leads the OECD in terms of household disposable income[1], never mind whatever "Southeast Asian backwater" country you're talking about. It's unlikely "US healthcare profiteering" would affect this. Healthcare spending in the US is 17.6% of GDP, which provides an upper limit on how much it can eat into income. Even if you assume all that's borne by households and subtract that from income figures, the US would still be in #2.
[1] https://www.oecd.org/en/data/indicators/household-disposable...