You're so right. We Americans are certainly getting screwed up one side and down the other. Companies will reem us at every possible opportunity. Specifically, Americans certainly do get saddled with most if not all of the R&D costs of drugs.
You got that right.
I think most of the money the pharmaceutical corporations spend on "research" is research into into such things as how to change the formula when the patent on the old formula is about to expire.
Most of the real research is not done by drug companies.
And the other funny part is that people tend to look at medicine to save them from their own bad behavior and habits.
It's like, got a problem, take a pill. Then you can keep doing what got you sick to begin with. Ah, progress.