If We Told You That, We Would Have to Shoot You
Very simply, the medical system can extract as much money from the patient as they want. The worse the illness, the more the patient will pay. Because the alternative is death. Health care is not a matter of supply and demand, it is a matter of life and death. Patients will give you the shirt off their back to avoid death. It's just not fair.<p>That is why strong government regulation for health care is a good idea.<p>These things run far more smoothly in countries with a public health care system. There, doctors typically get a fixed amount of money for each kind of illness. Hence, their incentive is to diagnose an illness as swiftly as possible and get the patients out the door. This has its own set of downsides, but at least the patient gets help rather more quickly and with less hassle.