Time to ask the invisible question. None of these economic triple geniuses have ever seen it, let alone answer it.
How is it possible that the arguably greatest generation, postwar, managed to survive (never mind thrive) without medicare and universal health care, the EPA and dozens of government supported NGOs?
There was a booming economy. Age expectancy was lower. And industry wasn't playing around with as many toxins.
As for healthcare -- even discounting what happened in 1918, we're dealing with some nasty bugs now, HepA to HepZ, etc. Do you want the guy making your salad in the kitchen not to have access to an emergency room?
Are you saying that a survival is a measure of success? You can as well ask, "how is it possible" that Russians or Kambodians "managed to survive" the Gulag and Pol Pot?
You must be desperate to use such argument.