American health spending per capita is much much higher than other 'rich' countries in the West. Yet Americans have a lower life expectancy than the majority of those countries

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/life-expectancy-vs-health-expenditure?stackMode=absolute

If you visit that page, you can see some further reading and information on the abysmal state of the US medical system.

Just under the chart time-scale bar.

The question is, why are these other countries able to provide better services at a significantly lower cost per capital.

Because of debt and they don't pay as much for national/international defense.

one is they artificially lower the cost by putting price ceilings on drugs and procedures

^

They also have far more 'generic drugs'

Which are, drugs that no longer have patents on them and are in the public domain.

which gets into the patent law I mentioned before

Such as, cetirizine hydrochloride

Yeah, you're completely right

Sounds like otter pops but the ones in walmart that are strangely near the radiator and transmission fluids.

I can't believe you have a patent on it over there..

I am completely in favor of redoing the patent laws concerning drugs in this country

It definitely needs to be addressed.

Watch people buy stuff in the US. They walk up to a brand name then see a generic and go "Yeah I'll pay three times as much for the label"

In fact, I bet if you made that one change alone it would probably make a huge dent in the issue

Honestly I think it probably would.

that also gets into making advertising drugs illegal. I am on the fence for that one

Our system is good for that:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/how-to-advertise-and-promote-medicines

I think that advertising drugs should be limited to a doctors waiting room

I'm on the fence about advertising it to healthcare professionals

With generic informative commercials being okay like talking about the drug without branding.

With that legislation in place, I don't think I've ever seen or heard a drug advertisement on the radio or on the television

Doctors should be advertised to but it needs to be by a licensed professional

Not someone who just walked off the street.

Doctors should be informed.

They should know about the latest drugs which have been released.

I think that advertisement is closely linked with lobbying

But that's somewhat a separate issue

Again I don't think advertising is a problem when its done by people who are doctors themselves.

Or pharmacists.

Ben Carson is a doctor. I don't trust his word on jack shit.

He's personally liable if gives medical advice even if it's off the cuff.

If you want to raise the bar make the sales person liable.

@Jokerfaic you know who else is a doctor?

Ron Paul?