Talk to anyone who has had to seek medical treatment in the United States and the first question is usually: were you insured? And, if they say yes: how much did you have to pay anyway?
The American healthcare industry, worth $4.5 trillion, is the country’s largest private employer and makes up more than 17 per cent of the economy. It is also the source of a frustration so deep and widespread that when Brian Thompson, the chief executive of the insurer UnitedHealthcare, was gunned down on a busy New York street last week, the public reaction was strikingly divided.
