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Americans have always loved the next big thing: the newest iPhone, the freshest hi-def television, and the latest and greatest 鈥� medical technology. But that quick embrace of new innovations has come at a cost: It鈥檚 driving up the prices hospitals charge insurance companies who in turn raise premiums for the rest of us.

One of the best examples can be found in the operating room at the University of California San Francisco聽Mt. Zion Medical Center, which looks聽like a video arcade plunked down in a NASA Control Center.

Dr. Kirsten Greene, a urologist, shows off聽a much-loved member of her surgical team, the聽Da Vinci S-I four arm robot.

The console where the surgeon controls the robot is some 10 feet away from the operating table.聽鈥淚 know this looks like old, 1980s video game console but it鈥檚 actually fairly high tech,鈥� she says.

During surgery, black聽goggles give Greene聽a 3-D view inside her patient. She controls the robot鈥檚 camera and four arms using little joysticks and foot pedals.

Unlike manufacturing plants that often replace humans with robots, in the operating room, robots have become an extra set of hands 鈥� really expensive hands. Surgical robots can cost up to two million dollars plus pricey maintenance fees.

Dr. Greene says the robot is worth it because 鈥渋t鈥檚 minimally invasive. It鈥檚 less blood loss. It鈥檚 faster recovery.鈥�

But after researchers studied thousands of robotic surgeries, it turns out that, but for a few exceptions, surgery outcomes aren鈥檛 any better and patient鈥檚 recovery time actually aren鈥檛聽any shorter.

Still, that hasn鈥檛 been enough to stop hospitals from engaging in a really expensive game of keeping up with the Joneses. In the San Francisco Bay Area alone there are at least 20 of these robots. At about $2 million a pop, that鈥檚 $40 million.

But insurers typically won鈥檛聽 pay more for a robotic surgery, or for the newest kind of MRI or CAT scan. So instead hospitals recoup their costs by charging insurance companies more for everything. And that contributes to $20 aspirin pills and the world鈥檚 highest health insurance costs.

But Greene says聽there鈥檚 no choice:聽鈥淚 think everyone just assumes you have it, because why wouldn鈥檛 you? It鈥檚 like having blood or beds or light in your OR now. You have to have a robot.鈥�