In a Third World country, “health for all” cannot be taken for granted, given the iniquitous provision of welfare and health care, combined with rampant poverty. So it comes as a surprise to me, a citizen of Pakistan, that health care should be the subject of such a fierce debate in the United States, where many of the problems faced by Pakistanis do not exist. This world power, after all, has the resources to provide the best health care for its people, if it wants to.

Yet Truthdig’s search engine brought up 708 results for the last few months when I keyed in the words “health care.” It was eye-opening. It is clear that, despite the heated argument surrounding the Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare,” that marked the advent of the Trump administration and the president’s failed efforts to repeal it, the controversy has not been laid to rest.

Michael Winship’s article titled “One Nation in Sickness and in Health” very cogently sums up America’s health care problem. “It’s a given that our health care system, one-sixth of our nation’s economy, is a nightmare,” he writes. Winship attributes this “nightmare” to the “stinkers out there so quick to abuse the system and make a quick big fast buck, especially in the pharmaceutical and health insurance industries.” Winship argues that reforms are necessary to attain the ultimate goal of making “universal health care a right for every one of us.”

Ironically, we in Pakistan face somewhat similar problems to the U.S.—albeit on a humongous scale: The factors that have led to a flawed health care system in Pakistan are different. They are mainly scarce resources, an expensive private sector for a handful of elites, no feasible medical insurance and a government that lacks political will and sensitivity to upgrade the existing ramshackle health care system.