Why is American healthcare so expensive, and why doesn’t spending more necessarily translate into better outcomes?

In this episode of Straight Out of Health IT, Christopher Kunney sits down with Malgorzata Guyot, PhD, an Independent Board & C-Suite Advisor with extensive experience across pharma, manufacturing, finance & audit, and international business.

Having worked across the United States and Europe, Malgorzata brings a unique perspective to one of healthcare’s most complicated questions: why do different healthcare systems produce such different economic and clinical realities?

This conversation goes beyond EHRs, AI, and technology to examine the underlying financial, governance, regulatory, and incentive structures that shape healthcare.

Christopher and Malgorzata explore:
• Why the U.S. spends significantly more on healthcare than many other wealthy nations
• The structural differences between American and European healthcare systems
• How fragmentation and multiple intermediaries can drive up costs
• The role of insurance companies, pharmacy benefit managers, and other players in the healthcare value chain
• How litigation and malpractice risk can influence the cost of care
• Why prescription drug pricing looks so different in the U.S. and Europe
• How the U.S. healthcare market helps finance pharmaceutical research and innovation globally
• The relationship between healthcare access, affordability, quality, and income
• Whether healthcare should be viewed as a right or an economic good
• What healthcare leaders and boards should be thinking about when it comes to governance, cost, and long-term sustainability