It’s all supply and demand. In the UK you don’t have a free market — you have essentially price caps (capped at “free”) — this causes shortages. In the US, you

It’s all supply and demand. In the UK you don’t have a free market — you have essentially price caps (capped at “free”) — this causes shortages. In the US, you don’t have the same price caps, but then generally you don’t have shortages. A person willing to pay market rates can almost always get care in the US, while no amount of money can speed up a UK NHS surgery waiting list. Really the answer is a balance somewhere in the middle, but my point is that the free market does work, when it’s allowed to. The problem in the US is that the market is highly distorted by Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement rates as well as opaque price competition.