[JohnFen]

> The difficult part is that one person's inefficiency is someone else's lunch, or yearly safari to Kenya, so every move to cut costs is politically untenable.

I think calling it "inefficiency" whitewashes the real problem. That "inefficiency" leads to a much higher rate of unnecessary deaths and adverse health outcomes in the US than nearly every other advanced nation.

And often, even if you can get good health care, the financial consequences are devastating. Even if you have insurance.