It is absolutely appalling how much we spend for healthcare in the United States.  What’s even more appalling is that we have absolutely no idea how much we’re going to spend for even basic health services.  It can vary wildly from place to place.  Quick, how much do you think an angiogram will cost you?  If you answered anywhere between $173 and $2,740, you’d be right!  But why the huge disparity and why do we pay so much more for healthcare than other countries.  Well, the disparity has to do with how health insurance pays for healthcare.  Each individual health group bargains with each individual health insurance company to get the best rate.  Two people sleeping in the same hospital room for the same procedure are likely not paying the same price.  As for the reason why we pay so much more than other countries, that’s easy.  Other countries restrict costs and we don’t.

You might want to argue that the United States pays vastly more because we have better health outcomes.  The only problem with that is we don’t.  We don’t even come close to the best health outcomes in almost every category you can imagine.