A family member is a health "insurance" actuarial. He said supply and demand does not work in health care. As an example of the ton of data insurance companies have demonstrating this, when a town/region has a higher number of dentists per person, prices do not go down, but that community's dental costs go up. Why? More procedures. And they tend to not get caught because when you get a 2nd opinion in the same town you have the same 'do more procedures' incentive. To have a chance of finding out, you'd have to get your 2nd opinion outside that region.