The confusion likely comes from assuming that the U.S. is targeting “cheaper cost of care” as a goal. The target here is “profit for business”. Usually that’s done by businesses withholding wage increases over decades, but occasionally some regulation is canceled or some private capture opportunity is found that jumps profits and prices rapidly. Australian healthcare generates a lower share of private business profit, both per AUD spent on healthcare and per total AUD spent, and so is seen as inferior to the U.S. model by our leaders.

Seen in that light, the increased prices are a universal winner for us: profits go up -> inflation goes up -> GDP goes up. Wages do not go up, and so as a whole we’ve surpassed 25% of all households unable to afford a one-bedroom home. Economists are taught to only model inflation in terms of price level: inflation = profit increases + wage increases, with no way to model their separate impacts. So our policies are economically sound, as long as one disregards the growing poverty.

Despair is, as Demotivators reminds us, highly profitable :-(™