Comment by JumpCrisscross

> shows that the US never had a world war on the continent. All the other countries treat health care as a matter of national security

I forgot about the world-class healthcare the populations of Africa, the Middle East and the war-ravaged parts of Asia enjoy.

I agree there is probably a link between war and healthcare. But the link flows through civic pride and identity, and population-wide familiarity with the horrors of war, more than it does from any sense of military preparedness. (That said, I've never seen an American politician try to sell universal healthcare as a national security imperative. Hmm...)