In any case, the big money providers earn is not the major cause of high medical spending in the United States. Most economists who study this question have concluded that lower fees and prices would save Americans something, but not much. If we cut the average American physician’s pay to European levels, and told the drug companies they can’t charge more for Lipitor in the United States than they do in the UK, there would be savings, but not nearly enough to bring our medical spending down to the levels in the rest of the developed world.
