The message delivered at most events can generally be boiled down to: “Don’t take our money, because we deserve it.” However, every once in a while, this message goes very wrong – it goes wrong when the speaker doesn’t realize that they are now on the wrong side of the debate and that everyone in the audience sees and understands their statement as absurd.

Fortunately, this seems to be happening more and more in health care where cronyism, rent-seeking, and hubris have long dominated in Capitol Hill policy circles.

Hospital executives watched this dynamic play out at a symposium sponsored by Politico and Arnold Ventures, as the hospitals attempted to justify a system in which they charge up to three times more than private doctors for the same service. They said these price hikes are necessary because they take losses in other areas, that hospitals face a high regulatory burden, and that they are – hold your moral judgment – doing the work of the community. They said that the premiums they are allowed to charge individuals, employers, and taxpayers must remain, or else.

“That cost shift has to come from somewhere,” the representative of the American Hospital Association eventually threatened. Blatantly admitting that their costs are just made up.

Therefore, despite record profits, hospitals argue that they have to shift costs to patients who are just trying to make ends meet. It means that despite the many hospitals building on to their emergency rooms – the very operations they say take losses – our nation’s entrepreneurs, the ones that are trying to build the economy instead of feed off of it, are forced to pay more. And it means that taxpayers are forced to pay more for the same service, not only for themselves but for others around the country just to pay hospital administrators to figure out even more ways to bill taxpayers out of more money.

The hospitals are scared because they have been allowed to get away with this grift for years, which has fueled consolidation in health care markets. Hospitals didn’t just use extra funds to keep the ER doors open – they used the capital to buy independent doctors offices, slap their logo on the door, and instantly start making more money. In fact, when a hospital takes over a doctors office, studies indicate that prices rise more than 14%.

Those arguments appeared to fall flat at the symposium, which could be a preview of things to come on Capitol Hill. A bipartisan collection of lawmakers is introducing site neutral reforms that would require Medicare to pay out the same cost for the same service no matter what the logo on the door says. The fix would take billions of dollars out of a hospital’s bottom line over the next 10 years. However, that is just what taxpayers will save. And the number is likely much more across the economy – and even more once entrepreneurs are allowed to keep more and invest more and single moms are allowed to spend their money on their kids.

Major hospital systems are correct that the cost shift has to come from somewhere. It needs to come from them. They are forcing taxpayers to buy a $600 toilet seat when they can just as easily buy the same one down the street for $5. That isn’t making health care better – it makes running a hospital more profitable. Additionally, MedPAC, an independent congressional agency tasked with looking at these issues, looked at what happens when hospitals receive higher payments – they found that costs per patient went up. This makes sense to any entrepreneur – but obviously still hasn’t made it into the common sense of the cronies.

If the Federal Trade Commission started looking at these small transactions it would instantly see the detriment to consumers and taxpayers. But the FTC isn’t needed, Congress just needs to pass a bill such as the Lower Costs, More Transparency Act (LCMT) that contains Site Neutrality. This would change the market incentives, allow taxpayers to pay the same price for the same service, and bring competition and efficiency back to health care markets.

We need more stethoscopes and white coats in healthcare and less Gucci-clad messengers defending bad public policy.

Charles Sauer (@CharlesSauer) is the president of the Market Institute. He has previously worked on Capitol Hill, for a governor, and for an academic think tank.