1) The incredibly complicated insurance/billing industry eats up a large portion of each health-care dollar. About 30% of total spending and 1 in 4 employees are tied up with the administration of health care spending/payment..

2) The health care product providers are some of the most profitable companies in the country. Our home town hero, Medtronic, has been repeatedly found guilty of kickbacks, and the highest compensated class of workers there are the salesmen who provide the incentive for the doctors to buy and specify. Ditto for other device makers and medicine makers. It turns out that Insurance companies are lousy at controlling costs–they make a percent of final costs–higher costs=more money and profits flowing through their company. The proof is that medical costs have exploded over the past few decades.

3) The intense reluctance to face the idea that everyone is going to die and that there are costs associated with attempting to keep everyone alive for the maximum time. Every time the “death panel” meme come up, the further a rational discussion of cost/benefit gets further away and the insurers get less control over costs.

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-04-10/the-reason-health-care-i…

Address those issues, and our health care costs would fall closer in line with the rest of the world. – Commenter Neil Rovick, to this MinnPost article.

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