Medical Opinion: it's a crime

Op/Ed in the NY Times, "Diagnosis:  insufficient outrage."

RECENT revelations should lead those of us involved in America’s health care system to ask a hard question about our business: At what point does it become a crime?
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Medical care is intended to help people, not enrich providers. But the way prices are rising, it’s beginning to look less like help than like highway robbery. And the providers — hospitals, doctors, universities, pharmaceutical companies and device manufactures — are the ones benefiting.... 

A number of publications — including this one — have recently published big reports on the exorbitant cost of American health care. ...[T]he biggest medical bills go to those least able to pay.  At what point does it become a crime?... 

We could make the system better. We could ensure that everyone has access to the same set of prices, like the Medicare fee schedule. We could end the “fee for service” positive feedback loop — in which doctors and hospitals earn more for every procedure they do, which leads to overtreating patients — and instead have a flat fee. But the incentives will never be perfect. Ultimately, society needs individuals to be guided by ethical standards. And in medical care, those standards are getting pretty darn low. 

Too many of us have passively accepted the situation as being beyond our control. Medical care in America could use a dose of moral outrage. It would be best for all if it was self-administered.