First of all, that's a strawman. You aren't counting the total cost of medicine. The better outcomes is a complete fabrication. Europeans with money come to the US for care for serious illnesses. You're just talking about the cost of going to a doctor and having them whack your knee.
Also, one factor that does help Europeans is that American pharmaceutical companies get screwed by price caps. Companies still sell there because they can charge more than the manufacturing cost, but Europeans just don't let them recoup their investment.
So, Americans get screwed with even higher prices because companies won't develop if they can't make the money back. Rather than help them, our idiot politicians want them to have price caps here. If you're not a complete idiot, and I think you probably are, you'll recognize the great threat this dynamic is going to have on future development. That really what you want?
I think what you really mean is that Europeans don't let pharma companies fleece their customers. As for standard care, you've painted a dismal picture that simply doesn't exist. I have a few friends from Europe who claim to have been treated royally by hospital staff when they needed treatment. I won't dispute that if cost were no object (as is the case for the wealthy), the US would probably be the preferred option. That's what our medical community caters to and the rest of us subsidize it with our premiums.
You don't follow words, so let's try numbers. Let's say:
- The cost of manufacturing a pill is $1
- The cost of creating the pill (research, testing, ...) was $8
- Expected profit on the pill is $1
- And let's say to make it simple all sales are in the US and Europe are equal, meaning half your sales are in the US and half in Europe and pricing doesn't change that.
- So, if there are no price controls, you charge $10 a pill everywhere.
- If Europe caps your price at $5, you sell in Europe, but have to sell for $15 a pill in the US. This is what is happening
- If the US caps the price at $5 as well, you stop development of any new medications and you only sell the ones you already invested in. this is what you are advocating we do