Opinion: U.S. healthcare prices are the elephant in the room

Traditionally, the theory driving discussions on the high cost of health care in the United States has been that there is enormous waste in the system, taking the form of excess utilization of care. From that theory it follows that methods of controlling the growth of health spending should focus on ways to reduce the use of unnecessary or only marginally beneficial health care. Largely overlooked in these discussions has been the elephant in the room: the extraordinarily high prices Americans pay for health care.