[factoryrat]

Yes, I know that.

What I’m pointing out is the COST of treatments and services before vs. after the advent of obamacare.

The costs are outpacing inflation, regardless of government mandates. Obamacare has made it that much more worse.

So the question is: how do we get the costs of healthcare for people who pay for their own way back down into affordable territory?

[Alberta's Child]

There's no way to reduce health care costs unless people pay 100% of the expenses out of their own pockets. The whole pricing and supply/demand picture is distorted when you have third-party payment arrangements for ANY product or service.

That's why there are some health care procedures whose costs have gone down over time because they aren't covered by insurance and therefore people must pay for them by themselves. Elective plastic surgery and Lasik eye surgery are two perfect examples of this. If a Lasik procedure costs $25,000 then hardly anyone would ever opt for it. But doctors had an incentive to get it down to a manageable price because they'd end up doing a lot procedures that way. In effect, direct payments from patients makes the health care system operate much more closely to a tradition business model where prices actually decline over time.