One important reason why health care is so much more expensive here:

Americans seem to be less willing to take no for an answer and more willing to try almost anything, no matter how expensive or how slim the odds, to prolong life. (The United States is also a fatter, more diverse country with wider income disparity, which gives our medical system a harder task.) . . .

. . . But much of it is simply wasteful. Expensive procedures – like some Alzheimer’s treatments, some knee surgeries and many body scans -— are often no more effective than basic ones, according to research. Yet doctors can keep on getting reimbursed for the expensive ones. “Basically, anything that doesn’t kill patients is paid for by Medicare and insurance companies,” said Jonathan Skinner, a health care researcher at Dartmouth College.

Backed by lawyers, families often corner doctors in doing “everything they can” during hopeless cases. A “more is more”, fee-for-service reimbursement system also spurs doctors on.