Over the last 50 years or so, the west has become much more individualistic and less social. This has lead to all sorts of problems (good things too, I am sure

Over the last 50 years or so, the west has become much more individualistic and less social. This has lead to all sorts of problems (good things too, I am sure). And it just so happens that medicine is where people turn to fix many of those issues. We don't properly regulate food, and people are free to get obese and malnourished, then after a few decades of that their body starts to fail and they need complex, expensive, flawed medical intervention for instance. The same applies to exercise and stress. We've also become hyper-competitive, busy and isolated, and that's leading to an epidemic of mental health issues. No one wants to make the decision to let people with serious neurological conditions like dementure die. So again, we spend enormous sums and cause great suffering because no one wants to make a hard decision. So spending has ballooned and it's done it in the most inefficient and ineffective areas. This is the price of "freedom".