If you look at the countries that have been able to keep healthcare costs under control, they've done it only through strict fee schedules, where the government decides and enforces a set cost for every single procedure and service. In Japan, for example, where the government has been most stringent in doing this, healthcare costs as a percentage of GDP have actually fallen in some recent years, staying more or less constant long-term.
A similar system has been enacted in Maryland, and costs there have also stayed relatively stable in the past few decades.
