&gt; The upshot is Americans fund much of the global drug industry’s earnings, and its efforts to find new medicines. “The U.S. is responsible for the majority of profits for most large pharmaceutical companies,” said Richard Evans, a health-care analyst at SSR LLC and a former pricing official at drug maker Roche Holding AG.<p>Consider two people who go to a care provider. Person A has health insurance. The insurance company has negotiated a lower than &quot;full&quot; price to be paid for care. Person A is basically happy.<p>Person B has no health insurance, and no negotiating power. Person B pays the full price.<p>America is person B, the uninsured party. For some reason we refuse to band together for a better deal.