I think it’s a scandal that we don’t have universal health insurance in this country, but Congressman Pete Stark has gone off the deep end:

We’re the only country in the world — not the only civilized country, not the only industrialized country, not the only non-third world country — we’re the only country in the world that does not provide health care to all of its residents.

It is true that the US stands out among industrialized countries in not having universal health care, but plenty of developing countries don’t have it either. Stark is wrong. Here’s the International Labor Organization:

A big challenge for social protection is providing
access to adequate care. People in industrialized countries enjoy almost
universal access to third-party financed health care. In Ireland, the Nordic countries, Southern Europe and the United Kingdom, national
health services are financed out of state revenues. However, in many low- and
middle-income countries, universal coverage is rare.

And yes, Stark is the ranking Democrat on the Health subcommittee of Ways and Means.

Update 8/8: Yes, people in this country can get care at the emergency room even if they can’t afford it. No, that’s not universal health care — at least not in the sense that almost everyone (including me) defines it. And clearly Stark doesn’t define it that way either.