This Element is an excerpt from Overhauling America's Healthcare Machine: Stop the Bleeding and Save Trillions (9780132173254) by Douglas A. Perednia. Available in print and digital formats. We’re paying more for healthcare than anyone else on in the world. Are we really getting what we’re paying for? To justify the status quo, politicians, insurers, and the media say many stupid things--as when they remind us we have the “best healthcare in the world.” The implication: We’re getting what we’re paying for, and the high price is simply the cost of being #1. But is this really true? Most of these pronouncements are consistently, suspiciously vague....