Go to a hospital and ask how much a procedure is. No one will give you a straight answer. They keep repeating "who is your insurance, who is your insurance". No, I want a true answer devoid of middlemen and scoundrels.
They can't give you the answer.
“The problem is all the middlemen, grifters, and parasites”
And resulting high prices.
I think some do-it-yourself or do-it-outside-the-healthcare-system alternatives might help to solve. The latter would be a competitor to the system.
Getting back to grifters and middlemen. I pay nothing for a modest amount of insulin but the sticker price for it is about $600 for a 3-month supply. Crazy, man! We could all cite similar examples.
Maybe insulin and a lot of other drugs ought to be available on the open market.