Wow, I need to find your friend's surgeon. We were charged $10,000 for 4 stitches in my daughter's forehead.

why is health care so expensive in the u.s

The real problem here is cost and that can be attacked without having the government take it over and push us into socialized medicine where people often wait to get treatment and often do, in fact, die waiting. Too, if the premise here is that government should take care of our needs then why not have the government take care of even more important physical needs like food and shelter? Seriously, if you want the government to care for you, if you think it's moral and ethical and proper and just then why not even more basic needs like food and housing for everybody. Of course, when food, housing, and medical care are taken care of... why the hell work? Civilization can just come to a stand still because you want to pretend we can have utopia. We need to get costs down rather then hand the problem off to mommy government because the problem seems to big. Try visiting the real world and please leave your utopian fantasies where they belong before the government just hands you a pain pill one day when you get to old for the mighty government to want to bother with you. Remember, Obama considers pain pills good medicine - grandma can just die when she gets to sick because the cost-benefit ratio is gone for the state.

arcadiagrim, I agree that the problem is (largely) about controlling the costs but respectfully disagree as to the most efficient and effective means of controlling those costs. While I cringe at the thought of another government run program it is all too clear to me that socialized healthcare is the only sensible route for us to take if managing the costs and ensuring reasonably good care is the goal. While I have also heard of some instances where individuals wait for care due to limited treatment facilities in Canada I am told that this is less common than seriously ill people being turned away because they are unable to pay the extraordinary costs here in the US.

To be clear, I am disgusted with the plan put forth by the current US administration and think it's a sham. I am convinced that we need true universal healthcare (we don't have it, not by a mile) and believe that the establishment of a system similar to Canada's is the most sensible and practicable. Of course, the pharmaceutical and medical industries will never allow it, unless we insist, and we really should insist.

No one is suggesting free food or shelter and that seems off topic.

My understanding is some of that is also related to problems we also have here: people choosing to live in areas further from facilities and/or doctors.

And exactly why is food and shelter off topic? It seems you're forwarding a fundamental argument for health care as a humanitarian obligation and a confiscation of personal wealth as a means of funding it. Would you advocate paying for expensive medical procedures and yet deny people the basics for survival? Once you accept the premise that we need a socialist, government centric solution for people's needs it becomes very difficult to start drawing lines.

I'll remind you that many people come from Canada to the US to get care that otherwise would not be provided because they're waiting in rationing lines so deep they're considered inhumane in the US. And you want there here? Seriously?! People have come to America from around the world to escape the very government centric solutions you're advocating we take up. You really want the inefficient, one size fits all bureaucratic nightmare which is virtually every government system in your health care? Utopia is fantasy. Reality is far bleaker. You appear old enough to know better. Use your common sense sir. The "affordable care act" has done nothing but already INCREASE COSTS. What makes you think any government system will make it better? Where's the proof? Socialistic systems around the globe are going bust. America is 16 TRILLION in debt. There's just no money for this fantasy. And these systems don't work precisely because giving people something for free encourages them to work less and less, putting an ever increasing burden on the system until it collapses. Look at Greece sir. Human nature is what it is. Stop the utopian fantasy and get real. Argue to get some of the costs down like torte reform, allowing insurance to be portable across state lines, etc. Please wake up before your government decides your to expensive to keep alive and hands you a pain pill with ZERO options available to you afterwards.

We spend more money to cover fewer people and get worse overall results than any western economy. A whopping 62% of US bankruptcies are due to out of pocket medical costs. Medical bankruptcies are virtually unheard of in every other modern western economy. It's outrageous that you can lose everything you own and be in debt for decades if you get hit by an uninsured driver and need surgery and a hospital stay and work in a job that doesn't offer insurance - or the insurance you can afford is inadequate.

Please read the preceding article in this series (found here for your convenience), which addresses why your scenario of America as a mecca of quality, no-wait healthcare drawing swarms of patients from the oppression of Kafka-esque bureaucratic nightmares worldwide is a ludicrous departure from reality.

The fact that America is 16 Trillion in dept is beside the fact of universal healthcare. We are sixteen trillion in debt because we continue to finance other countries (many of whom despise us, we continue to pursue an enemy who we will never fully defeat at an enormous expense and we continue to support and house illegal immigrants from around the world. Yes, we are too broke to support universal healthcare, but being wholly irresponsible in fiscal matters does not negate the necessity and the importance of the issue. If we fix the stuff that is broke, then we can afford the stuff that is necessary.

The fact that people come here to get advanced services that are not covered by their governments healthcare does not in any way speak to the thousands, tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of lives that the very same universal health-care helped to save. Seriously, think about it...'let's take the examples of WEALTHY foreigners who come to America to purchase advanced medical procedures as the qualifying evidence against medical care for the poor the world over.' That makes no sense my friend.

Again, Greece is not an example of universal healthcare gone wrong. It's an example of total cradle to the grave entitlements, excessively early retirements, and total benefits gone wrong. I understand your thought process of (paraphrasing) 'once the ball starts rolling there is no stopping it' but that still isn't a good excuse for men and women to not do what is right.

I've always said I'm a Liberal Dreamer but a Conservative Realist. On fiscal matters I've sided largely with Conservatives most of my life. I'm horribly scared of what is happening to the economy and I don't buy into the bullshit that the Affordable Care Act is going to help revive the economy, because it's not. It's going to be a financial burden... but sometimes so are children, and our grandparents, and our aging parents... but we don't toss them out and say 'sorry about your damn luck...put your big kid panties on and die with some humility.' Why would we say that to anyone else's children, or parents, or grandparents.

Healthcare in the US is the best in the world but it is too expensive because The way our 3rd party payer system is structured, Government interference and fraud in the medicare system, and partly because we subsidize the "Free" Canada and Europe healthcare industries When they put artificial caps on drugs and medical equipment the research and development costs have to be passed on to someone and that is usually the American health industry. Not to mention that we continue to treat without reimbursement from the Mexican Government millions upon millions of it's citizens which drive up the costs and put hospitals out of business in the West and south of America. The story of being turned away from a hospital is almost non existent in most of the country except where liberal policies have screwed up the local healthcare industry like in Cali. There are allot of good things that can be done to improve the best healthcare system in the world but Obamacare is not it!!!

I am Canadian and there are a lot of misconceptions about healthcare in Canada. Someone above commented that people often die waiting for treatment and although I don't doubt that it has happened. It does not happen enough to warrant that being an issue. What kills more people is having millions without coverage who can't afford treatment at all. My American friends I implore you to not believe the bullshit that is being fed to you demonizing it. Giving people free health care certainly doesn't encourage people to work less and I'm sorry but that is simply bullshit. I can put it no other way. You need to do some more in depth research if you think universal healthcare all over the world is failing. Educate yourselves with facts and don't listen to the partisan bullshit that is spewed because far too often sly politic manoeuvres are convincing people to go against something that is clearly in their best interest.

This is just simply not the case for huge portions of your population. Healthcare in the US is non-existent for a disgusting number of people.

Because we have no limit the amount that lawsuits pay for malpractice and the amounts are decided by inner city jurors. This makes the insurance so expensive. A doctor has to carry it for life, even after they have retired. Plus other stuff.

Really, you need to provide actual proof to back up claims like this. Please do so.

You also need to provide actual facts if you're going to make claims like this. Otherwise, you're just spouting bullshit talking points.