[tinokid]

"People cared" maybe plays a bigger role than you realize here. There were stronger social norms back then about the role of medical care in society. Most hospitals were community or religious owned, physicians were content with merely above average professional salaries, and you never saw any kind of advertisement that ended with "ask your doctor about X".

I think it's naive to assume the 16.5%-of-GDP octopus we've created wouldn't figure out a way to profit from the removal of all regulations.

[HarryHirsch]

You also wonder how much consolidation has had to do with the erosion of social norms. An owner of a community practice might feel constrained in a different way than an employee at a healthcare company.