> We don't have a free market to fall back on. Indeed. Vets can do operations for less than a tenth the price doctors can, so prices could presumably go a long

> We don't have a free market to fall back on. Indeed. Vets can do operations for less than a tenth the price doctors can, so prices could presumably go a long way down given the right market incentives. But getting the right incentives in place is the hard thing. I don't think there is a really good way to run health care, all the obvious solutins have big holes, e.g.: - buyer paying for health care as they need it doesn't work because someone might not have any health problems for years then they are suddenly hit by a crippling bill - insurance doesn't work because once people have a pre-existing condition, they can't buy insurance any more. - big state-run bureaucracies have all the problems you'd expect with big state-run bureaucracies.