[Health care Doom and Gloom]

O.K.

I was coming at it from adding government to the existing system. I should have stated very clearly that I don't see how it will be less unwieldly. I simply don't believe the existing system will go away if government takes over.

May I suggest you don't need to take shots to make your point.

Just freewheeling:

The operating costs keep climbing: lease, utilities, malpractice insurance, admin labor, insurance filing (there are companies who offer this specialized service!), ...

OTOH, Doc performs a colonoscopy, charges $500.  Insurance says they won't pay more than $350 for a colonoscopy.  Doc battles insurance forms department, which repeatedly spits out claim for failure to properly pronounce a word, poor penmanship, and so on.  Meanwhile, the patient -- usually some elderly gent with loose bowels -- is billed for the remaining $150.  He ain't paying.  So twenty years ago, Doc could do the 'scope, charge $400 and collect it.  Now he charges $500 to cover his higher costs of running his practice, and he collects maybe $350.  (Numbers conjured for illustrative purposes.)

The GE my mother worked for shut down his practice after he started working TWO DAYS PER WEEK reviewing hospital medical care for an insurance company.  He earned more in those two days than he did in five at his practice, and with ZERO billing headaches in the bargain.

Wasn't intended to be a 'Shot', but the dogmatic position that Gubment involvement is always odious is just that: Dogmatic.

Clive has pretty much got it right. 

Reimbursement rates for medical procedures haven't well kept up with the costs.  The way the system operates, practices/hospitals/whatever are reimbursed on a per procedure basis, and the physicians pretty much are last in line and only get to keep what is left over after everyone else has received their cut.

Where has all the money gone?  Well, into the rabbit hole, of course.