Speaking as a complete non-expert who has just listened to some economic podcasts about health care, there's not a reason they charge $6 for Tylenol. There's mo

Speaking as a complete non-expert who has just listened to some economic podcasts about health care, there's not a reason they charge $6 for Tylenol. There's more like 100 intertwined reasons. Healthcare economics is a nightmare of complexity. I'm not sure that it has to be, but it is. My guess is that the complexity of the thing is itself one of the biggest problems. Kind of like how the US tax code has, in countless efforts to encourage this or discourage that, been made so complicated that an entire profession has arisen for trying to navigate it. Every dollar spent trying to determine how much tax you owe is pure waste. The healthcare industry is similarly full of waste. A friend of mine works at a company whose whole reason for existence is to help doctors determine the correct industry codes to put on their bills so that insurance companies will pay them (the codes are different for each insurance carrier). The fact that this is necessary is outrageous.