[Cthulhu_]

That's mostly because there not being any restrictions on health care pricings (as far as I know); the insurance companies don't pressure hospitals to keep costs manageable, the government doesn't prevent health care institutions from charging widely different prices, and nobody stops pharmacy companies from charging exorbitant prices for medication.

[joelhaus]

This is called the "price elasticity of demand" in economics. Here is a good list of factors that affect elasticity of a good: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Price_elasticity_of_demand#Det...