Proponents of “Medicare for All” often point towards European nations with universal healthcare systems to prove that single-payer could work here. The global ramifications of inevitably immolating our medical research and development aside, there’s just one, massive elephant in the room that progressives love to ignore: obesity.

At 36.2 percent, the American obesity rate is the 12th-highest in the world and first among OECD countries. Of every European nation with universal healthcare, only the United Kingdom (27.8 percent) and Hungary (26.4 percent) come within 10 percent of the American obesity rate.