One reason is the attitude of the American consumer. Maggie Mahar is right on the money:

Part of the problem may be that American consumers want and expect more health care. We just won’t accept our own mortality: we expect medicine to save us. Indeed some, like medical ethicist Daniel Callahan, have suggested that our high-tech, high-profit health care industry is “in the business of selling dreams.”

I like the following statistic:

If your personal doctor told you that you had an incurable and fatal disease, would you accept that diagnosis or seek a second opinion?

In the U.S., 91 percent of patients said they would seek a second opinion.

In the U.K., [it’s] 28 percent.