Health insurance at its core is very simple. You put money in, you go to doctor, insurance pay doctor. But in the USA, the insurance denies everything they possibly can. Money put in doesn’t ever see a doctor or your health costs, it goes right to the stockholders…
So why doesn’t someone just make a non-profit health insurance company where there’s no stock, no executives, just public servants and aggressive price negotiation where your medical bills are actually paid with the money put in?
Everything with “middle men” is like that.
Numbers get inflated then discounted.
It’s why it’s present at every step of capitalism, at every step someone takes a cut, so the price is inflated, then “discounted” to what consumers are willing to pay which is still an insane profit margin.