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America does not have a free market health care system. It has extremely large market distortions. While you are blaming the current state of affairs on the fre

America does not have a free market health care system. It has extremely large market distortions. While you are blaming the current state of affairs on the free market, I am blaming it on Government. What I advocate is not being tested out, and what you advocate isn't being tested out either, so we can't just look at the results to see who is right. One of the market distortions in health care is tax subsidies for employer provided health care plans. You blame recession on the free market. But how can that be? We don't have a free market. We have huge market distortions in all sorts of key areas. Those are more than capable of causing recessions.

bballant 17y ago
Of course there is no purely free market anywhere in the world. Just as there is no pure socialism. My point is that free market reforms (i.e. deregulation and privatization) have lead to inefficiencies (and so have social programs). If you're hoping for a completely free market, that's like wishing for the second coming of Christ. I think a pragmatic mix of free and social markets makes more sense. I blame the recession on a more-free market, not a purely free market. The banking industry needs more regulation. Finally, there are many reasons for our healthcare mess and government is but a small part. For example, A big reason healthcare in America is employer-based is, back in the 50's, auto, steel, and other huge companies were afraid of union power and government meddling, so they said "we'll take care of the health of our employees." They opted for a more-free market (not purely obviously) approach.