When a handful of companies dominate an industry, they may conspire to fix prices at monopoly levels. German antitrust authorities have fined a group of beer brewers a total of 106.5 million euros ($145 million) for illegal price-fixing between 2006 and 2008. The price-fixing was based "largely on purely personal and telephone contacts." Include references.

What about healthcare? Why is the cost of healthcare in the US higher than other parts of the world? Is the US healthcare system operating as a monopoly? Are the insurance companies?