There are insane controls on supply. It’s not a free market. Everyone has to choose a Ferrari treatment or not go to the doctor. There’s no budget option.
What do you say to things like shopping around using newly-transparented prices, telehealth, minute/community clinic visits, and nurse help lines?
The guest is the head of the Surgical Center of Oklahoma. You can see prices of procedures very easily on their website. That's what you'll pay, even if something goes wrong. Surgeons earn more when working there than they earn at a regular hospital while patients pay less. However, no insurance wants to work with them. Supposedly because they have a price and won't negotiate with insurance who get part of their money as reward from large customers for negotiating prices down.
Indeed, in this case the scarcity is, at least in part, artificial, but the cost still comes down to supply and demand at the end of the day.