- The hospital industry is a monopolized cartel - you usually need the approval of existing hospitals in an area before you can open your own. - The insurance i

- The hospital industry is a monopolized cartel - you usually need the approval of existing hospitals in an area before you can open your own. - The insurance industry is a cartel - there are extreme compliance costs that only a few big players can take care of. - Employer provided insurance is subsidized. - Most 'reform' of health care in the US has punished individual insurance holders while strengthening the employment-based insurance system further strengthening third-party payment systems including increasing lists of 'must-cover' mandates for health insurance. - McCarran-Ferguson act exempted health insurance from a competitive national market. - The culture and institutional incentives in US healthcare push towards extreme capital-intensive expenditures and cut down on labor-intensive expenditures even when its not cost effective for the procedures that the patients require. Hospital beds get more expensive per day while extremely unlikely to succeed procedures like proton therapy expand further. This paper is very illuminating and comprehensive: http://c4ss.org/content/2088 http://c4ss.org/content/2088. Please have a look even if you disagree with the solutions and the ideology of the author. I assure you it will be worth your time.