Thank you for saying that. It is just what I wanted to say when I read post #6.
In the beginning, the free market controlled the costs of medical care. Doctors and hospitals could not charge more that patients could pay, simply because if they did so then they would have no patients. There was help for he truly poor as they could pay "in kind" (with a chicken for example)and there were charity wards, etc. Then insurance companies came along and people could pay premiums to insure that if they had severe medical problems, they could still pay the bills. Of course, once the doctors and hospitals and pharmaceutical companies saw that no matter what they charged, the insurance companies would pay, so they began to raise their prices. The insurance companies responded by raising their premiums and the vicious cycle grew. Insurance got to be more expensive than most people could afford or that they wanted to pay. Businesses, thinking that they could attract and keep better qualified employees, began to offer to pay part or all of that insurance price as part of the employee compensation. The government stepped in and made all businesses over a certain size share the cost of insurance with their employees. That meant that insurance as compensation for good work, now lost its original value in that employees got it no matter who they worked for or how well they contributed to the business' profit. And of course the medical providers and insurance companies all saw that they could raise their prices again and again and someone would still pay. Prices have gone far past what all but the very wealthy can afford to pay...... reason, greed all around plus interference by the government who has no authority under the constitution to even be involved in this.
Summed up nicely.
PLUS, MEDICARE sets the Prices for what insurance companies pay for procedures! If the GOVERNMENT had not gotten involved, we’d all be better off.