Our health care system... how to say it? Oh yeah - it sucks.

Here's a chart:

This chart shows trends in life expectancy by trends in health spending from 1970 to 2008. The United States still stands out, and in a big way. Our gain in life expectancy per additional health spending is much smaller than in other countries, particularly after the early 1980s when we reached expenditures of about $2,500 per person (in 2005 dollars) and life expectancy of around 74-75 years...   (Consider the Evidence via Brad DeLong)

We're paying lots more than similarly wealthy countries and getting less in return, using the basic measure of life expectancy.  One hopes that the Affordable Care Act will at least begin the process of increasing both the value and effectiveness in our health care system.