The Gordian knot of healthcare.

For most of my adult life, I supported the idea of free healthcare. It sounded humane — civilized, even. No one should go broke because they got sick, right? I still believe that in principle. But after living under a socialized medical system for more than a decade, I’ve changed my mind about what “free” really means.

I’ve also been working on a broader critique of America’s healthcare system — and the deeper I dig, the more I see both models as different threads in the same Gordian knot.



The Gordian Knot of Healthcare

In the ancient city of Gordium, there was a knot so tightly wound that no one could untie it. Legend said whoever could unravel it would rule the world. Many tried; all failed — until Alexander the Great showed up and simply sliced through it with his sword.

That same story feels a lot like our modern healthcare systems. The difference is, instead of a sword, we’ve got bureaucrats, politicians, and lobbyists all tugging on different ends of the same rope — tightening it further with every “solution.”


How We Tied Ourselves to the System

During World War II, wage controls forced employers to get creative. They started offering health insurance as a benefit — and just like that, your job became your healthcare plan. That’s the moment the first loop in the knot was tied.

After the war, the government saw a tangle forming, but instead of untangling it while it was still manageable, they added new threads: Medicare, Medicaid, tax credits, and eventually the Affordable Care Act. Each was meant to patch holes, but together they twisted into something even messier.

Over time, the government pulled in the threads of healthcare credits, wrapped them in a Medicare strand, and balled all of it up in the ACA. Now we’re staring at a frayed end — the temporary ACA premium tax credits — and instead of reworking the system, Congress just argues about whether to knot it tighter.

They didn’t double anyone’s premiums. They just didn’t renew the patch holding this particular strand together. But try explaining that nuance on Facebook — where attention spans are shorter than a VA appointment reminder. Shorter than the lineup to test a jetpack made by Greta Thunberg.



What I Learned Living Under “Free” Healthcare

Here’s where my view really shifted. People love to hold up socialized medicine as a cure-all, but I’ve lived in Canada long enough to see the tradeoffs up close. You don’t just exchange costs for wait times; you spread the costs across everything in society — housing, food, taxes — and end up with longer waits and fewer options.

“Free” healthcare is anything but. Canadians still need private insurance for gaps, and drug prices, while sometimes lower, are far from free. Meanwhile, a growing number of families rely on food banks just to get by. And now, Canada’s MAiD program has quietly begun offering euthanasia to the poor and sick under the banner of compassion.

That’s when I realized: a system that claims to care for everyone can also quietly decide who’s not worth saving.

The U.S. system has its own failures — ours just have the potential to cost you more directly. Some Americans land jobs with solid coverage and do fine. Others lose their job and lose their care. Both systems are flawed, but I’ve come to believe that giving the government more power isn’t the answer. The “death panels” people warned about? They’re already running in our friendly neighbor to the north.



The Knot Beneath the Surface

Here’s the real kicker: both systems are built on corruption. In the U.S., most national politicians have healthcare PACs funneling them money. Regulators come from the very industries they’re supposed to oversee, then cash out by returning to those same corporations. It’s the revolving door from hell — a Gordian knot of conflicts of interest.

When someone like RFK Jr. questions the integrity of that system, he isn’t met with debate — he’s met with character assassination. Because pulling on that thread risks unraveling everything.



What Changed for Me

I used to think free healthcare was the solution. Now I see it as another strand in the knot — one that looks clean from a distance but tangles everything it touches.

Alexander had a sword. We’ve got awareness, frustration, and maybe just enough courage to start cutting through the lies. The question isn’t whether we can fix it. It’s whether we’re willing to take a swing before the knot tightens so much it strangles us all.

Mic G