The reason the treatment costs so much is in large part because of insurers aggressively pricing treatments down, forcing hospitals to respond by jacking prices

The reason the treatment costs so much is in large part because of insurers aggressively pricing treatments down, forcing hospitals to respond by jacking prices up. It's a never-ending cycle. See e. g. https://www.fairobserver.com/economics/why-are-us-hospitals-so-expensive/ https://www.fairobserver.com/economics/why-are-us-hospitals-... The fix here would be to remove the middlemen (insurance companies) and pay hospitals what Medicare/Medicaid pay them, which is typically a much lower negotiated amount.