Before 1973, it was illegal to make a profit in medicine. Nixon changed the law for one of his donors and presto! The mess we have now.

A little history: https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2020/...rofit-Business

From the article

This is something I wish everyone knew about how medical services changed in 1973. Up to that point it was illegal to make a profit from medical services. However a wealthy friend and president/chairman of Kaiser-Permanente asked Nixon for a favor which resulted in the Health Maintenance Organization Act of 1973 allowing medical entities to make a profit. Since then medical costs have continued to rise so the profiteers such as insurance companies could make a killing (literally in some cases) off the medical needs of Americans.

Here is something else the law did: "And to perfectly cement HMOA73 as the profiteering boondoggle that it actually was, the law Nixon mandated also included clauses that encouraged medical providers to not CURE afflictions, but to PROLONG them by only treating the symptoms. There’s no money to be made in CURING sickness."