In socialist Scandinavia it's the same fraud. It started when a certain family who owned a lot of oil (that shall remain unnamed on Medium) discovered that petroleum could be used in medicine. They then started pharmaceutical companies that would make cancer causing "medicines" and started calling all other medicines with thousands of years on their neck "alternative medicine". Anyway, I remember that I didn't show the right insurance card at a Swedish hospital, and they sent me a bill for more than 2200 dollars; for one x-ray picture and a 5 minute conversation with a doctor in the E.R. Mostly I just sat on a chair in the hallway and waited for hours. Where do they get these prices? Out of thin air? It's tax payer fraud made by the government and pharmaceutical industry. I sent in the right documents and the "tax payers covered most of the bill". It's still fraud. Same thing when I gave birth at home and was sent with an ambulance to the hospital afterwards. I slept there for 2 nights, sharing a room with other women and my child spent some hours under a UV-lamp. The bill they sent me was about 8000 dollars (!) before I could send in the right insurance card. Again, completely prized out of proportion. Because that's what governments and social medicine does. Qui Bono?