Oh, that's an interesting point!

Does this number includes public AND private? How is it calculated?

In France there is basic healthcare, which is really good and free for everyone (free as in taxes!) and then a lot of people have additional private healthcare -

I wonder if this number is included, because for what I remember, additional healthcare in France is about the same price as healthcare in the USA. Add to it the price of the public healthcare, which I assume is higher than USA, simply because more services, and the logic is, the overall is more expensive?

It does include both private and public. You'd have to dig into the different reports to figure out exact methodologies (which I'm too lazy to do right now), but most reports converge on the USA being the country that spends the most on healthcare, both on a per capita basis (which is less interesting, we're richer than most other countries so we should spend more) but also on a % GDP basis. And we win by a large margin on that metric, despite getting pretty mediocre bang for buck.

Various theories explain this: inefficiencies, the USA subsidizing research for the rest of the world, etc. Really they're two sides of the same coin--those inefficiencies line the pockets of various medical-related corporations, some of which ends up going into research.

Oh I see, thanks for the details!

Same thing in Canada, a lot of the US seems to envy our healthcare system and the current system is cheaper per capita than medicare in the US, even before Obama and Bush expanded coverage.

healthcare in Canada is still pretty horrible, and over flooded. Having to wait ~10h in emergency because of a minor problem... might as well not go. (lived 10 years in Canada so I know!)

I'm not a huge fan of it either, but we certainly get more for our public dollar than the US does which was my point.

Generally the emergency room works on a triage process so going there with a minor issue means everyone with serious issues gets treated first.

If you want to go to the emerg room with a minor issue and get treated in a reasonable amount of time you may want to consider whether one of your symptoms is having trouble breathing. A quick run before going to the emerg if you're out of shape quite often produces this symptom.

Have you ever had an ambulance ride and 6 hours in the ER cost you ~$15K USD? This is normal in the US.