Right you are RT Dennis.  Hospitals, clinics and doctors pay huge sums of money to politicians through lobbying groups or associations, who then look the other way while they raise prices on procedures and care to exorbitant, ridiculous amounts.  There has to be some cost control, but it'll never happen because these career politicians are getting paid to do nothing.  If we could stop this legalized bribery, then we could do something, but no, in the end the only people that suffer are average Americans. IMHO this is the biggest problem we face today.