From a very quick search for statistics, it looks like the insanity defense is used in around, or less than, 1% of criminal (felony) cases, and 15% of those are murder cases (that is, 15% of 1%). https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/crime/trial/faqs.html
For the rest, I couldn’t agree with you more; I’m a Canadian and I don’t know why any American would oppose universal healthcare, ever, unless they simply didn’t understand it. There’s mentally ill homeless people here, too, because no one can force someone to take medication and so people with severe illnesses don’t, and don’t stay stable. Ever since the de-institutionalization of decades ago (which was a good thing overall, and meant to be replaced by community treatment) the homelessness issue has been one involving mental health, and there’s no easy answers. Still, I’ll take a system where if you want help and treatment you can get it without having insurance or an HMO or money… I hope it gets better for you!
