At the bottom of that dungheap, I'd pretty much bet that we'll find:
Illegal aliens.
Federal Regulations
The need for tort reform
Take care of that, and there is a good chance costs would come back in line.
I saw a chart plotting the cost of health care for the general population, against medicare and Medicaid reimbursement rates.
Not surprisingly, as medicare and medicaid reimbursement got lower and lower, the cost to everyone else went up. Wish I had that chart now...
Anyway, the point was that as Government messed with their own programs, the civilian world costs soared, so naturally Government came in to fix the “crisis”.