Why do certain costs rise and others not?

Here is an enlightening article dealing with rising costs and contrasts them to certain areas of medicine that have minimized the inflationary rise.

NCPA Brief Analysis #572, Update 2006: Why Are Health Costs Rising?

One paragraph states:

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  Health Care Costs Rise When Others Pay. A primary reason why health care costs are soaring is that most of the time when people enter the medical marketplace, they are spending someone else's money. When patients pay their own medical bills, they are conservative consumers. Economic studies and common sense confirm that people are less likely to be prudent, careful shoppers if someone else is picking up the tab. Thus, the increase in spending has occurred because third parties — employers, insurance companies or government — pay almost all the bills.
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  For every $1 worth of hospital care consumed, the patient pays only about three cents out of pocket, on the average; 97 cents is paid by a third party.
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  For every $1 worth of physician services consumed, the patient pays less than 10 cents out of pocket, on the average.
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  For the health care system as a whole, every time patients consume $1 in services, they pay only 14 cents out of pocket.

Plastic surgery, certain eye procedures and many dental procedures all fall into this category. The reason is pretty straight forward. These are all areas where the consumer actually has to pay out of pocket and usually before or at the time the service is rendered. This is the true open market, consumer driven principle that has repeatedly proved to work.