My guess is it has something to do with the already exorbitant healthcare costs Americans are making (causing the asked price not to be an outlier) in combination with the obesity epidemic going on in the country.
Surely they can't both be true at the same time though, right? Either governments are rightfully not participating in a price-gouging racket, or they are cheapskates not willing to pay pharma companies.
That's not how it works. Right now the situation is: it doesn't work. You claim it should be a workable situation. Show how it should work, don't ask people to prove a negative.
Unless you bring a solution to the table, taking the position that it isn't impossible is just cheap contrarianism on your part. Sure we can try new things, but if it doesn't work and everyone is commenting the approach isn't helping, then maybe take the hint. Or not, and keep swimming against the stream (in which - seeing OP's other comments - they seem to be more interested than actually solving the problem)
He's manipulating by using the 'anchoring effect'. Now Indians are supposed to be like:
"Hey wait a minute that's way too high, how about 70 hours a week?"
That's very concrete language you're using there. Are you perchance an introvert? We could make it n = 41 and add a dash more selection bias to boot!