Maybe I just haven't had enough coffee, but this article felt really lacking. > There were two areas where the United States really was quite different: We pay

Maybe I just haven't had enough coffee, but this article felt really lacking. > There were two areas where the United States really was quite different: We pay substantially higher prices for medical services, including hospitalization, doctors’ visits and prescription drugs. > “It’s not that we’re buying more pizzas, we’re just paying more for each pie,” We already know we pay more. That's literally stated in the title. Why are we paying more? Isn't that the central question being discussed? > It’s often argued that patients in the United States use too much medical care. But the country was below average on measures of how often patients went to the doctor or hospital. They don't specify, so I have to wonder if they made any effort to distinguish between hospital visitation rates for people with and without insurance (or with and without good insurance). Considering that visiting the hospital - or even worse, ending up the ER - can be financially crippling for those without adequate insurance, I have to think this is an important variable. Also, this article doesn't address what is probably one of the most oft-cited explanations for high healthcare costs in the US : prescription medicine. Specifically the idea that the US 'subsidizes' pharma R&D by virtue of not having any entity that is capable / willing to negotiate the prices that many other countries enjoy. You'd think that an article that purports to debunk 'common' explanations would at least mention the most common one of them all.