Why is American health care so expensive?

As I come closer to actually retiring, one might think I would stop reading the journals that arrive weekly. But they're too interesting. Sounds strange, with a whole world of interesting things to learn about, that they would continue to call to me, but wow. They are full of cool stuff. Take, for instance, today's JAMA Open, a compendium of recent articles in all of the subspecialty journals from the American Medical Association. I wanted to get to other things on my always a little too long list, but there it was, so I read it: 1. Should we use Octenidine wipes (a less bad antibacterial-- it kills bacteria, fungi and viruses, used in Europe) or sterile water to clean babies in the ICU to prevent sepsis? Turns out sterile water works just as well. Yay biomes! Yay plain water! Don't kill all the things on the skin and babies are just as safe! 2. If the government requires cigarettes have very low nicotine, will people just smoke more cigarettes? Mostly, no. Will they smoke ...