Doctors look high and low and very wide for the answer to the mystery of the dying, suffering Americans. We suggest that that the solution is very, very close.

A study paper in the current Journal of the American Medical Association concludes very little. The major finding is that Americans pay twice as much a year for medical care than Brits do. Yet we get shorter, sicker lives.

You can read the abstract of Disease and Disadvantage in the United States and in England (you need a sub or to wait six months for the whole thing). Popular coverage is ubiquitous, including this overview in the International Herald Tribune.