You were talking about the American healthcare system in the comment of yours that I replied to. It's not a tangent because you specifically referenced the US, and I also went past the US healthcare system specifically to emphasize that a private system with private middlemen is going to be more expensive no matter what country has the system. I don't really care about what the other guy was saying right now because I am not them and am not referencing anything they are talking about.
The reason socialized healthcare is able to be affordable is because the government lobbies on our behalf and is able to get bulk discounts essentially. In a private system, it's like everyone is individually shopping at Walmart. In a socialized system, it's like one person is buying for everyone directly from the manufacturers that Walmart themselves buys from.
And if you're saying that a private system can also be like that... you're basically describing a government. How would it be any different if the system was "private" but one large entity lobbied for all of us exactly like the government? The word "private" isn't a magic way to make things cheaper. Further, unless this private entity was not-for-profit, it would inherently be more expensive than the government-run system because they would also be focused on turning a profit. So either it's run by the government or run by a pseudo-government... and we can at least vote for the actual government to change things.
the point was that the other guy was being an asshat and declaring that I must just be some evil greedy bugger who wants to save 5 bucks by not giving everyone healthcare. I corrected him that it's actually closer to $20,000 for my family, at least, so he shouldn't be so flippant about it.
As for this, they weren't literally saying you spend $5 on healthcare. It's an exaggeration because often the types that want to gut healthcare want to do it for a small payout for themselves while causing suffering for many others, and also because the amount we pay per capita in a socialized system is actually less than we would in a private system as a whole, which is where their "tangent" into the US healthcare system came from.