One reason is law suits. There were few suits against gynecologists when the baby was not perfect. Today’s doctors pay 100,000 per year for malpractice insurance.
Any attempt to bring down medical costs, needs to include tort reform to slow down the high cost of judgments by juries.
Just for the record, ObamaCare is about medical insurance, not healthcare.
It is a lot more than that.
Of course, the standard of care has increased dramatically. In 1950 infant mortality in the US was 29 deaths/1000 births. In 2010 it was ~6.
But I think the real increase was caused by medical insurance. They have negotiated prices for their covered patients down, down and then down some more. Therefore prices for non-covered patients must go up.