What if... the government set expected prices for things? Say they set the price for 90% of treatments. That includes life long medications and multiple tentative surgeries.
If it's on the government register, the cost is known.

Like, they say that 90% of medical treatment will be a fixed cost. And it starts off fairly expensive. But with aggregate data it gets cheaper. And the fact that the government mandates it. And I'm sure there is already a lot of data...

It costs 1$ for a dose of paracetamol (or whatever). Starts off whatever the average is, then trends towards the actual cost to acquire. Takes a year or 2 to bring costs inline, paracetamol is $20 per dose but 20¢ per dose, etc.

I mean, who the fuck is licencing these hospitals to charge this much? The government, right?
Who the fuck is licencing these pharma companies to sell the drugs this expensive? The government, right?
And who is letting medical insurance companies this much power? The government!

Why the fuck doesn't the government actually align price with cost?
Oh, money. Yeh, it's money.
It's about senators being bought for $10k.
It's about "lobbying" $10m, and generating a $1bn gap.