My thesis: Health care costs are higher in the US largely because the US has more per capita wealth than other counties. Look at per capita spending: http://ww

My thesis: Health care costs are higher in the US largely because the US has more per capita wealth than other counties. Look at per capita spending: http://www.oecd.org/norway/BriefingNoteNORWAY2012.pdf http://www.oecd.org/norway/BriefingNoteNORWAY2012.pdf The biggest spenders are the US, Norway, Switzerland and Luxembourg--the same counties with the highest per capita GDP. Health care is simply something a person will spare no expense on: everybody eventually enters a period of chronic poor health as they age in affluent Western societes, but would pay anything to remedy it.