If it were legal in the US, no in-patient care insurance would be pretty cheap as well. I'll agree not as cheap as ex-US, but a hell of a cheaper than Obamacare plans.
Regarding US share of research funding versus the rest of the world, this is well established... Public funding and private profits are the two big US sources of medical research dollars. The NE Journal of Medicine reports that the US funds about half of all global medical research spending, and that's split approximately evenly between public and private funding.
Here's [1] a CBO paper on the topic of pharma R&D spending / reinvestment which is also worth a look. R&D as a percentage of sales ("research intensity") is higher in pharma than almost any other industry, and increased significantly in the 80s and has held constant since then.
[1] - https://www.cbo.gov/sites/default/files/109th-congress-2005-...
Howso?
(Upvoted, just out of the feeling of irritation at this.)
Important to note is that that profit margin is after taking into account that pharmaceutical companies spend more on advertising than they do on research. How about we just take out the profit margin, take out the advertising and give the money directly to universities who already do a lot of the research and then make the results freely available? That way US citizens on HN will still be able to feel superior about subsidising the healthcare of the 'entire world' and everyone will have access to low cost generics.
The whole medical system in US is broken. This morning I had a strange thought... I need to prepare for trips to US the same way I'd prepare for going to a third-world country: by buying a special medical insurance! It's one of the important TODO items when going to certain countries.
Fun fact: I can get a medical insurance that covers US with deductibles in low hundreds of dollars by doubling my not-so-high premium. As an expat. How crazy it is that I can get a better deal on insurance in US than local people?