Prof G says his mother’s health problems, being ‘underinsured’ fueled him to get rich — blasts America for being the only democracy that ‘focuses on shareholders’ versus wellbeing

On a recent episode of the Pivot podcast, Galloway described how he rushed back home during his first year of graduate school because his mother was underinsured and discharged early from her second mastectomy.

“I walked into a situation, the likes of which I had never seen before and I could not handle,” he said. “Nurses were $35 an hour and our insurance couldn’t cover it. At that moment I thought, ‘No one can decide to be rich, but I’m going to work so f–king hard from this point forward.'"

He describes the incident as “the most frightening moment” of his life, which may have been avoided if America’s healthcare system was structured similarly to that of other developed countries.

Citizens over shareholders?

The United States is the only wealthy, developed nation without universal healthcare, relying primarily on private insurance and limited government programs like Medicare and Medicaid.

Most developed countries, such as Canada, the U.K., France and Germany, provide universal healthcare through various models. Canada has a single-payer system managed by individual provinces, while Germany and France offer a hybrid public-private model. Meanwhile, U.K. residents are offered government-provided healthcare through the National Health Service (NHS).

While some low-income nations also lack universal healthcare, the U.S. stands out among high-income countries for the size of its uninsured population. As of 2023, more than 26 million Americans — or roughly 8% of the population — were uninsured, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Whether you have insurance or not, healthcare costs can be prohibitive. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, 1% of the country’s population has over $10,000 in medical debt. And 15% of U.S. households have some form of medical debt, according to the Marketplace Morning Report, which also claims healthcare related debt is the leading cause of bankruptcy in America.

Galloway says the root cause of the problem is that the healthcare system is designed to maximize shareholder returns instead of the wellbeing of consumers.

“You want to talk about f–king with a young man’s sense of well-being when you can’t take care of your sick mother? Times that by 10 million, that is what has happened when you insert a profit motive into something as important as healthcare,” he said on the podcast.

Unfortunately, there is no major healthcare reform currently on the table. But there are several ways for families to manage and mitigate the costs of healthcare.