From the Washington Post 2013: "In America, Medicare and Medicaid negotiate prices on behalf of their tens of millions of members and, not coincidentally, purchase care at a substantial markdown from the commercial average. But outside that, it’s a free-for-all. Providers largely charge what they can get away with, often offering different prices to different insurers, and an even higher price to the uninsured."

So, is the answer to have some body in government or elsewhere set prices for all procedures? Kinda goes against the idea of a free market, but...