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I didn't really suggest that the US Government spends money on healthcare, I was merely quoting the article: "Health care consumes 18% of GDP in America"

Please note that the wording implies that 18% of GDP is spent on health care overall not that the US Government is spending all that money out of its pocket directly on yearly budgets. The way I understand it is that it includes both money spent by public and private actors for all health related service.

I see this type of stat a warning that something might be dysfunctional within the system, and it's the government's job to get to the bottom of it.

Compared to a single-payer socialized system, this is less involvement - even if it is a lot of involvent.

by what metric?

There is some crazy amnesia here about the US healthcare system. Some 40% of the US are already covered through Medicaid/Medicare - "socialism" is long here!