[Plett25]

You're right, Medicare/Medicaid working partially inside the private system is inefficient. But that's not the real inefficiency.

Americans spend twice as much on healthcare and get worse results than any other country in the OECD. That's not Medicare's and Medicaid's fault, they're probably the most efficient part of the U.S. Health care system.

And those programs look after the elderly and low income Americans... you know, the expensive health care clients. Medicare/Medicaid clients are more likely to be low income Americans living in food deserts than kale eating yoga enthusiasts. Or seniors with chronic conditions that went unmanaged for decades due to the high cost of private health care.

The private health care system is great for the 1%, but system wide it is horribly inefficient.