Hospitals routinely charge $7 for a single tylenol tablet (more than a bottle of 100 anywhere else), and private healthcare providers routinely pay it. The cost of administering the tablet is extra. Single payer isn't the problem.
There is a flaw in your logic. Just because there is a problem with X, that does not mean Y is better or worse or the same. Gotta dig a little deeper.
But you raise a good point. Why is it that private ins cos seem to routinely pay what appear to be outrageous charges?
Dental is simpler for me to think about, it's generally more routine and more limited in scope and common. Offhand, none of the charges from my dentist seem too out of line. It takes skill and time to fit a crown and there are liabilities if you do something wrong; him and his staff needs to charge a fair price. And when DD went in for wisdom tooth extraction, the office offered the whole set of meds to me for $20 (pain killers, prednisone, antibiotics) - that was worth it to avoid a trip and waiting at the pharmacy, and I may have paid more there, I don't know.
Medical, tougher call. My other DD had some tests recently that were very expensive ($ thousands each for ~15 minute run on several different instruments), and the equipment looked like it probably earned it's cost back in 1992. Obviously, the specialist who interprets the data can earn good money for his skill, but those are separate charges. BTW, the tests confirmed no real problem just a suspicious symptom that needed to be checked, so that story ended well, just drained my pocket book a bit more than I think it should have.
-ERD50