re: R&D investment
I didn't imply that the pharmaceutical companies were losing money on the deal. I was just wondering if when people tally up "health care costs in the U.S." if that was part of the mix. I've seen the mantra about health care costs and numbers for the totals, but I have never found an itemization.
I hear a lot about "efficiency," too. Certainly a mixed private insurance system is going to be less efficient than a monolithic system, as far as paperwork and duplication go. But efficiency can be the enemy of choice. If we had only one brand and style of automobile manufactured in the U.S., the automobile manufacturing process would be far more efficient than it is now.