Thank you for posting this. There are tremendous inefficiencies in the US system. Some are just dead enders from past times, some stem from American individuali

Thank you for posting this. There are tremendous inefficiencies in the US system. Some are just dead enders from past times, some stem from American individualism and it's ideology, and a lot from failures to invest in infrastructure and our human resources (our citizens). Of course health care is an incredibly contentious topic but I was struck by the sheer waste and cruelty of the system when I read of the story of a 24 year old man that died because of a tooth infection. He went to the pharmacy with two prescriptions, an antibiotic and a pain killer. Lacking the money for the higher priced antibiotics he only filled the pain killer prescription. He died from that infection. Society spent at least $7000 per year for 12 years to educate this young man and we let him die for lack of $70 for a prescription. Even if you feel no empathy and discount national shame this is an example of breath taking irrational economic waste.