A lot of weirdness in the US happens because we were the first to do something, or the first country where a practice became widespread. Certainly after you get to the point as a nation where there needs to be some kind of "national ID," you might create one from whole cloth, but for decades the US had no need of such a thing because there was no way for two businesses in two different states to communicate except by mail, fax, or telephone. And we also have that weird fundamentalist Christian lobby that believes any "national ID card" or number is the "mark of the beast" from Revelations and staunchly refuses such a thing.

The only nationwide unique ID people are assigned is a Social Security number. They are absolutely not designed for unique tracking. In practice that’s exactly how they’re used, in healthcare and everywhere else. It’s maddening.