Why is American health care so expensive?

Today I thought I'd read the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) and learn something deeply meaningful. I usually love the New England Journal (Wikipedia says it is " among the most prestigious peer-reviewed medical journals  and the oldest continuously published one ")  because I feel like it has such a strong history of academic excellence that whatever they print will have value. This is probably not true. The New England Journal In 2009, Marcia Angell MD, a senior lecturer at Harvard University and the former Editor in Chief of the NEJM wrote an article entitled "Drug Companies and Doctors, a Tale of Corruption" in the New York Review about the way drug companies skew research to encourage increasing and inappropriate use of medications. It was based on what she had seen published in the New England Journal and others. This might have been a hint that there was something amiss in the contents of my favorite professional publication. In 2012, the W...

Another great trip! I have gotten to go with University of California at Irvine medical students to Tanzania for three years as their supervising MD. They do all of the work, pretty much, preparing lesson plans to teach clinical officer students basic ultrasound as well as designing study protocols, getting institutional review board approvals, and carrying ultrasound machines on fatigued shoulders through multiple airports. I get to teach them a bit about clinical medicine, field questions that they couldn't possibly answer and flaunt the MD on my nametag. Ten students, just done with a pretty grueling first year, came to Mwanza, Tanzania this year and worked like dogs for a month teaching and doing research. Each year the project is a little bit different, with different research protocols along with improved and adjusted curricula. Their primary project is to teach a large group of students (this year about 100) who are in school to become clinical officers, roughly the equi...