American Healthcare vs. American Soccer

Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.


Over the weekend Mitch McConnell told David Gregory that “we have the finest health care in the world.”  This is pretty standard Republican boilerplate, and it got me to wondering.

Has any Democrat ever said that “we have the worst health care in the world”?  Why not?  Sure, technically, you’d need to say “industrialized world” or some such, but aside from that it would be pretty accurate.  Certainly more accurate than McConnell’s formulation.

So why not say it?  I can think of a few reasons.  (a) Americans don’t like to hear anyone telling them they aren’t the best at anything. (b) It would require politicians to explain how it is that other countries do healthcare better and cheaper than us — and Americans really, really don’t like to hear that France does something better than us. (c) Since most Americans have health insurance and get adequate care, it’s a tough sell. (d) Democrats agree with McConnell.

I suppose there are other possible reasons too.  But why nibble around the edges?  Republicans are willing to straight out claim that we’re the best, even though there’s virtually no metric in which this is even remotely the case.  It’s as laughable as saying that America has the best soccer team in the world.  So why aren’t we willing to stretch things a bit and flatly say that virtually every advanced country offers better healthcare than we do?  What’s so hard about that?

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate