bhauer: a few flaws in your analysis. Insurance companies do not like prices being high either. They have to raise premiums and this discourages people from purchasing insurance. Insurance companies have a vested interest in making sure that you do not get ill. They have to pay if you get ill. This is the reason that people who smoke pay higher insurance premiums.

Outside of other comments: of course profit changes doctors' decisions! Why wouldn't it? The medical industry is a business. It is, however, the most regulated industry in the USA. Tech is the least regulated. In the tech industry progress and innovation abounds. It does not in the medical industry. I see a correlation there.