M.R.I's Are Expensive Because of Government Intervention

Bill Keller used his NYT column today to outline a series of myths about President Obama's health care plan. At one point he tells readers:

"I’m a pretty devout capitalist, and I see that in some cases individual responsibility helps contain wasteful spending on health care. If you have to share the cost of that extra M.R.I. or elective surgery, you’ll think hard about whether you really need it."

The irony here is that under the current system it is government intervention that makes "the co...