The American healthcare system is the perfect combination of misaligned incentives. In the US, patients are the ones who have to foot the bill, but they have no

The American healthcare system is the perfect combination of misaligned incentives. In the US, patients are the ones who have to foot the bill, but they have no incentive to keep the costs down because things are covered by insurance. As a small example, I don't need new glasses every year, but I get a new pair every year because it's covered by insurance. On a much larger scale, in most countries, it doesn't make economic sense to spend tens of millions of dollars to develop a medicine that's 1% more effective than a currently existing one. In poorer countries like India, there will be very few people who could afford the new medicine. In countries with socialized medicine, the government would rather spend the money on something else. In the US, patients are more than happy to pay for the new medicine because it costs the same as the old one after insurance. Meanwhile, everyone's insurance premiums bump up a few cents and nobody bats an eye. Repeat this a thousand times and you're left with an incredibly bloated healthcare system.