Capitalism’s Price Tag on Pain
A six-hour ER visit cost $80,000—$23,000 even after insurance. This is not healthcare—it’s extortion. America’s profit-driven system rewards CEOs while families drown in debt, forcing loved ones to wonder if survival is even affordable. Seventy-two countries guarantee universal healthcare. America sells it to the highest bidder.
Today I want to discuss a situation that cuts to the very heart of capitalism: its supposed superiority over socialism, and how this myth continues to poison the American mind.
Most Americans, if asked, would confidently say they know what capitalism is—even if their definition is hazy at best. But when it comes to socialism, I would wager that the vast majority have no real clue. They imagine gulags, bread lines, and Soviet commissars. Yet socialism has been present in this country since its very founding, and we live with it every day—whether we admit it or not.
When our tax dollars are collected and redistributed to provide police protection, fire services, public education, emergency medical response, Social Security, Medicare, food assistance, unemployment insurance—this is socialism at work. Socialism, far from being a dirty word, is the infrastructure of any civilized nation. It is the recognition that certain human needs—safety, health, dignity—cannot be left to the mercy of profit margins.
Nowhere is this contrast clearer than in our beloved, for-profit healthcare system. A system where CEOs receive bonuses for denying claims, where life and death decisions are filtered through actuarial spreadsheets, and where the sick and vulnerable are little more than revenue streams.
Let me tell you a story.
A few months ago, my wife experienced severe back and abdominal pain at work—pain so excruciating she could barely walk. I picked her up and rushed her to urgent care, only to find that at 7 p.m. most urgent cares were closed, and those open lacked the resources to diagnose her condition. We ended up in the emergency room.
To their credit, the ER staff were compassionate and efficient. She was wheeled in, stabilized with morphine, and given two CT scans. After six hours, she was discharged with some relief but no clear answers, pending further tests with specialists.
Now, at this point, you might think: here it is, the shining example of American capitalism delivering first-class care. We had good employer insurance, competent doctors, and all the right technology at our fingertips. But that illusion shattered six weeks later, when the bill arrived.
The total cost: $80,000.
Our portion, after insurance: $23,000.
Twenty-three thousand dollars—for six hours in the ER, two scans, and a few doses of morphine. “This is not healthcare; this is extortion dressed up in a lab coat.”
And let’s not kid ourselves—this is not some anomaly. This is the system. This is what happens when human suffering is converted into a balance sheet, when the goal is not health but profit. It’s why CEOs of healthcare giants live in palatial estates, buy yachts, and in some cases hide wealth on private islands, while ordinary Americans drown in medical debt.
We are told to believe that capitalism is the best, most efficient system, that it rewards hard work, that anyone can start a small business and grow it into a billion-dollar empire. That’s a fairy tale. The billionaires we glorify didn’t claw their way up from scratch; they inherited wealth, exploited labor, gamed tax codes, and crushed smaller competitors. The American Dream has been privatized, fenced off, and sold at auction to the highest bidder.
Meanwhile, you—the worker, the taxpayer—are left working two jobs, struggling to pay the mortgage, and staring at a $23,000 bill that makes you wonder whether your loved one’s life is even worth saving the next time. My wife, in despair, said the words no one in a so-called “advanced” nation should ever have to utter: “Next time, just let me die.”
Seventy-two countries across the globe—Canada, Australia, Switzerland, Sweden among them—guarantee universal healthcare. They do not consign their citizens to bankruptcy for the crime of being ill. They recognize that a healthy population is not a commodity but the foundation of a functioning society.
The United States, in contrast, continues to peddle the fantasy that profit-driven healthcare is somehow freedom. “But freedom that costs $23,000 for six hours is not freedom at all.”
It is bondage to a system that values shareholders more than human lives.
Why it Matters
Healthcare costs in America reveal capitalism’s cruelest lie: that freedom is found in the marketplace. But when survival itself carries a price tag, capitalism doesn’t give freedom—it sells bondage. Until Americans reject profit as the foundation of healthcare, despair will remain the cost of survival.
Key Takeaways
- Capitalism glorifies profit-driven healthcare, but patients pay in bankruptcy and despair.
- Even with insurance, ER visits can leave families with five-figure bills.
- Social programs like Medicare, Social Security, and public schools are socialism in action—yet demonized while silently sustaining America.
- Other nations guarantee healthcare as a right; the U.S. commodifies it, turning suffering into profit.
Further Reading
- The Healing of America: A Global Quest for Better, Cheaper, and Fairer Health Care – T.R. Reid. A comparison of healthcare systems worldwide and why the U.S. lags behind. https://civilheresy.com/healing of america
- An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back – Elisabeth Rosenthal. Explores how profit warped the U.S. healthcare system and what can be done. https://civilheresy.com/american sickness
- Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay: The Case for Economic Disobedience and Debt Abolition – Debt Collective. A manifesto against crushing debt and how collective action can resist it. https://civilheresy.com/cant pay wont pay
