You and Timmah both said this, but 'per capita' takes care of population and size into account. 

The only argument that I can see you make would be urban vs rural.  Great Britian is more urban than the United States, but in no way does that make up for the United States paying three times as much as Great Britian does for healthcare.  Rural areas tend to get less funding anyway.

The reason behind that is the U.S. health care system suffers from a parasitic infection called "The Corporate Executive"

It's not the executives or businesses' fault.  It is their job to do every thing legally possible to maximize profit. 

Some of the laws need to change. 

Some ideas, not the only things, not all necessary - all will allow the U.S. to attract and retain the best doctors in the world:

FDA approval processes need to get less political.

Drug producers should be forced to license out their drugs (let others produce it) or the process should be made public (not for producing copies but for research openness), for a reasonable fee instead of keeping a monopoly.  But extend the patent time, so they can keep making those smaller profits longer.

Make price caps illegal, all they do is set a minimum - and do not keep prices down.

Return to health insurance instead of managed care.

For high cost procedures, over let's say $200k, the type that would bankrupt almost every american, add in a government funding.  Nobody is doing these electively.  I am not for completely socialized medicine, but people should not have to choose between death and bankruptcy; food or prescriptions.

Force private practitioners to do a of specific type and amount of pro-bono work if they charge over a certain amount or do a lot of elective procedures (plastic surgery, cosmetic dermatology).

Subsidize health care - tax rebates (both Obama and McCain are pushing a type of this).

Do not allow HCP's to deny life saving procedures - but government should pay part of the most costly procedures.

Make many common Perscriptions OTC, like every other country.

These may or may not be right, but Americans should be talking about it, and they don't because they are afraid.

I can assure you that a pharma company paying a doctor to perscribe their drug over a competing one is 110% illegal. I've seen (remember I work for pharma) sales reps dismissed immediatly for inappropiately handing out low value gifts, such as a meal.

As for generics. The active ingredients are 100% chemically equivalent per FDA regs. This means that the forumula will produce the same effect. Often times Clinical Trials show little to no difference in safety and efficacy. As for delivery systems, and I don't want to get too involved, you are refering to patented technolgy that can control release over time for longer effects or they help target specific areas. An example is new generation Histimine blockers, they are pretty much the same thing as last gen histimine blockers except they don't cross the Blood Brain Barrier, so you don't get drowsey. But the bottom line is that generics without the delivery systems are just as effective but may have to be taken more often due to not being controlled release or may have more annoying side effects, but if you cant afford the name brand.. then tough s###, get what you can afford or get a better job.

I'd like to offer a different view on this. I dont think the problems are the hospitals and doctors. It's also not a problem of the pharma companies. If anything it's the Insurance companies and government.

Health Care is wrapped in it's own protected and seperated market. One that has been allowed to out run inflation. So I think the following changes will have the best results in reducing prices.

1)remove the legislation that allows hospitals/clinics to not advertise prices

2)reform insurance to follow a sane model. Make it like car insurance. Cover for trauma and and expensive procedures that would bankrupt a person.

3)offer transient aide to people in circumstances that make premiums impossible to pay

4)stop employer shopping. allow a person to shop for and find insurance they need. if an employer wants to offer to pay for the insurance a person has purchased as an attracted method, then fine.

5)remove the facism. Stop passing laws that requires me, a male, to have maternal coverage.

6)allow ERs to turn away people who are not in an emergency situation.

7)expand HSA and destroy FLEX. Allow tax free saving for health costs that belong to me and not the employer.

Drug reps often persuade doctors to use their drugs, often resulting in gifts which are not illegal.  It can only be punished by a doctor's supervisor if they choose to do so or if it is hospital policy (which I have never heard of).  For instance, at the medical school and hosptial I am familar with, medical students are punished for accepting gifts from drug reps but doctors who work for the hospital cannot be punished.

I'm not just talking about prescriptions as there are many methods to treat a single ailment such as surgery, rehab, medications, etc.  If one doctors opts for surgery and one doctor opts for medication and they both treat the ailment, then neither have done wrong even though the doctor who preformed surgery probably got a lot more money from the patient (or the patient's insurance).

Concerning prescriptions, you and I may understand the details of prescription drugs, but the average consumer does not.  That means that the average consumer does not have the knowledge to make prescription drug decisions for themselves and thus cannot be held accountable (or called stupid by you) because they were prescribed one drug over another.

Medicine has regulations for a reason, because its a serious profession that requires government insight to make sure shitty doctors dont become doctors.  The same can be said about engineering and many other professions, you dont want an unequalified high school drop out to build a skyscraper, so the government makes regulations to protect people.

Hospitals do not advertise prices because consumers do not have the knowledge to make an informed decision on their medical treatment.  Average consumers see $2000 eye surgery at Jimmy's Hospital and $3000 eye surgery at St. Johns and chooses the $2000 surgery because he has no idea about other costs and benefits.  Jimmy's hospital might be the worst hospital in the state with out of date equipment and St. Johns has a new robot to assist in surgery but the consumer has no idea about that (these were just very simple examples) and cannot make an informed decision.

no.  It doesn't.

Per Capita is "average per person".

That doesn't take into account the fact that larger nations are going to spend more per person.

Here's a fun lesson in how buisnesses and orginzations work.

Say you have a country with 9 people in it.

You have 3 administrators that can take care of 3 peoples healthcare... and one person on top that can watch 3 administrators.

So that's... 3 Administrators and 1 guy on top.... you pay each 10 dollars, and the guy on top 20.  For a total of 50 dollars pay.

$5.55 per capita

Now.... take a country with 18 people in it.

You have 6 administrators  Who can watch 10 people.  However you have 2 people on top since each can only watch 3 people.

NOW you need a person on top of them to watch the two administrators to watch the two people on top.

The admins make 10 each.  20 for the administrators, and 30 for the guys on top.

130 dollars pay total.

or $7.22 Per capita.

Now what about a country that's 6 times larger then the first?  With way more hospitals because people are way more spread out.

The larger the country the bigger the infastructure is going to get.... and the more layers or employees are going to be needed and hired to make sure everyone else is on the up and up.

Each layer adds a significant amount per capita.

Privatized or socialized och whatever you choose, the thing is that SOMEONE is making A LOT of money from the American healthcare system.

Kasz216: I think you have to ground your speculations in empirical fact since it does not have to be the way you describe it. Through decentralization or whatever way you choose to to rationalize an organization you can lower there costs. In Sweden, Canada and France, just to take a few examples, we have socialized healthcare. In a neoliberal discourse this is the worst way to organize ANYTHING, because everything gets very ineffective. Still, France is considered to have the best health care system in the whole world.

MrBubbles wrote: "you steal all our doctors by throwing large piles of cash at them and it causes shortages here."

Oh, so there is a brain drain in the poor US? So all the doctors want to move away from you? Are doctors starving in the US? I think they earn a lot more than they do in Sweden and many other European countries.

You will have to define gifts. Legislatively, the term used is "gift of nominal value." Or a gift of such little value that it could not be considered coercive, fraudulent, or a kickback. Are you really talking about a pen that may say Zoloft? Is the doctor bribed by the clicky top?

I have no way of comparing the profitablity between the different ways of treatment. I have no what the costs are and what the prices are since hospitals can legally hide that information.

The average consumer is privy to the same information I am privy to. All that's needed is to read it or discuss the different treatments with your doctor. And if they don't do this then yes, they are stupid. If I'm putting a dangerous chemical in my mouth, like any sane person, I'm reading and educating myself first.