The USA has left the WHO, the Trump administration has announced billions of cuts to medical research programmes, and the Secretary of Health is a notorious anti-vaxxer. Right now, it’s best not to get sick in America. Particularly as the healthcare system there is already largely failing.
Medical expenses are the leading cause of personal bankruptcy in the USA. Faced with bills sometimes running into hundreds of thousands of dollars, patients are reduced to launching online fundraising campaigns in the hope of paying for their treatment.
Certain doctors have invested in a niche market: medicine for the ultra-rich. Dr Lawson has only a few patients, but he is at their service 24 hours a day and will jump on a plane at a moment’s notice to see them. He charges $100,000 per patient per year for this service.
An investigation into the American healthcare system, one of the most expensive and unequal in the world.