The issue is not that Americans are dramatically unhealthier than the rest of the world, we actually have a relatively young population. The issue is not that we are using too much care, we use comparatively little. The problem is not that our payment model inherently makes spending higher. The simple problem is that our government, unlike almost all other first world governments, allows health care companies with incredible market power to rip off both public and private consumers. If we want to bring down costs the answer is simple, we need to adopt one of the standardized price control systems proven to be effective in the rest of the first world.

As you can see in this helpful chart from the Kaiser Family Foundation, America pays much more for health care than any other first-world country.

There are a lot of false ideas or very minor explanations that are overstated to try to justify why we pay so much.