In my view, a broader observation is that every group claims to be protecting us while accusing every other group of gouging us. This leads me to suspect that they are all gouging us. The system is so labyrinthine that literally nobody can figure out where the money is going. And many of these groups have ownership stakes in the other groups. For instance, doctors are prominent owners and investors in clinics, providers, and even malpractice insurance companies.

It's attributed to Abe Lincoln, that in order to get down to the truth, you have to get all of the liars in the room together.

In my imagination, a potential benefit of a government health care system is that it could eliminate this rat's nest of business entities by paying directly for the things that are needed. And we'd know who is getting paid how much by just publishing the government's checkbook register. Doctors can attend medical school for free, and then work for the government, for a good professional salary. They don't have to engage in all sorts of monkey business with LLC's and insider investments to earn a living.