An interesting piece which makes the point that healthcare costs a lot in the U.S. because a) we’re rich and the incremental benefits are how we’ve decided to spend our $$ and b) our labor costs are high — both of which make a lot of sense. It’s worth considering still, that we don’t really look around and see all that many people in the medical industry getting injustifiably, filthy rich. Sure there are execs at big pharma and and at insurance companies who’ve “done well,” but it’s nowhere near the excess we’ve seen in the financial industry over the last couple decades. So maybe things in healthcare aren’t so out of whack? My inclination is that we pay a very high “peace of mind” premium on healthcare in the U.S. - we’re constantly paying for expensive tests, drugs, or procedures that may have very little or no health impact, but serve to ease people’s nerves about their health. Now whether that’s worth it or not (at public or at private expense), to my mind, isn’t so clear cut…

{disclaimer: I haven’t studied the healthcare policy landscape enough to really put any stake in the ground]