This is absolute demonstrable horseshit (he says without providing any references). The cost of a gallbladder surgery does not go around and get funnelled back

This is absolute demonstrable horseshit (he says without providing any references). The cost of a gallbladder surgery does not go around and get funnelled back into research and innovation; it is padding the pockets of coders (an almost unheard of profession in much of the rest of the world), administrators and doctors who are busy paying off student debts the size of most doctors in the western world's mortgages. Drug costs are completely out of control and the bankrupting effect this has on the most vulnerable members of a community is completely outrageous and out of touch with what a reasonable society should be expected to do. The high price of monoclonal antibodies and other treatments is no excuse for the blatant market failure that occurs here. To further expand on this: Healthcare is a price inelastic good. The current situation in the US is one of abject market failure as what should be considered an essential service is made available to only those able to pay for it (or willing to bankrupt their families). The worst instances of this are in cases of cancer, where life-extending therapies (maybe only a few months, maybe many years, and a tiny pay-off of a long future) are only available for tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars. So vulnerable families pay it - middle class families that thought they were doing everything right, sell or re-mortgage the family house in the hope of keeping their loved one around forever. Then they die. Then the hardship begins. This is, in my considered opinion, criminal. Bottom line: I firmly believe there is no excuse for the wastage and high costs that the American system provides. Healthcare should be about innovation; and yes we need to fund it. But in the US as in other countries, significant funding is provided by governments for basic research which goes on to be capitalised by private companies, when this information should be free. Bottom line- this article, and indeed your comment, is a post hoc rationalisation of high healthcare charges, with little recognition of the true drivers, and it does not need to be this way