re: Why Are American Health Care Costs So High?

1. ER abuse
2. luxury items in treatment (like private rooms)
3. lack of wait time
4. defensive medicine (to avoid litigation)
5. aggressive medicine (esp for neonatal care)
6. unhealthy population compared to our peers
7. research and developmental costs

the biggest conceptual reason is that patients AND doctors are removed from the price point for services. insurance and governmental reimbursements dominate the repayment so much that the providers have no clue what the costs actually are

a lot of these costs have higher prices b/c of waste/abuse, primarily ER abuse by poor people. on top of this, we're much more unhealthy than our peers (esp the poor). our lowest class fricks up all sorts of things (education, crime, etc) , and healthcare is no different

lastly, we develop drugs. a lot of drugs. other countries free ride off of our R/D, while our population has to have those costs passed down to them