It's generally very difficult to compare the cost of specific services in any meaningful way. For instance, many countries institute price controls on medication, cutting the cost of some prescriptions to 30% of what they'd cost in the US. However, some of these drugs were developed in the US based on US patent law and with the assumption of a certain amount of profit from US consumers. A price control in Canada is effectively subsidized by US consumers of a given drug, in lots of cases.
A great deal of the costs we pay come as a result of artificial scarcity of both drugs and medical services. The result of legislation, fears of malpractice, and prescription requirements mean that treating a simple sinus infection (which I can diagnose reasonably well myself) costs ~$150 or so after the doctor visit and trip to the pharmacy. There are a great many ways to attack that scarcity, but we're not really considering them (unfortunately).
Dean Kamen has a good point. The level of medical care we can provide to people is both insane and insanely expensive. High prices are rationing. What we need to do is attack the high prices that are artificially inflated.
I liked this quote: "Every drug that's made is a gift from one generation to the next because, while it may be expensive now, it goes off patent and your kids will have it essentially for free."
The high cost in the US is paying for the R&D that makes the drug possible
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The interview largely ignores that concern, and focuses instead on the strawman of absolute cost.
Absolute cost is far from a strawman in this issue given that the basic argument for reform (as they've proposed - since I think a lot of people are for reform including Dean Kamen), is that the US healthcare system as it is now is too expensive and ergo a significant barrier to access. Others like Kamen make the point that by restricting absolute costs, innovation will drop because the incentives for innovating drop.
I don’t know for sure but my hope would be that at least some relatively routine/commoditized stuff is higher in America to pay for things that aren’t being done in other places.
In any case Dean Kamen makes some great points about moving beyond fear based legislation.
It's impossible to predict when you'll need it, and how much of it you'll need. When you really need it, you'll pay any price for it, even if that means spending every penny you have and then going heavily into debt.
I can't think of a single other product or service that behaves quite like that.