> If you instead give $10k/year to that individual in cash he would not be able to buy the same level of care for the same price on the private market How do y

> If you instead give $10k/year to that individual in cash he would not be able to buy the same level of care for the same price on the private market How do you know that? Countries with much worse welfare than the US often have much better prices than the US when it comes to healthcare. Maybe healthcare prices were allowed to grow so much only because insurance pays for most of it anyway. If that changes, healthcare providers would have to charge more realistic amounts, especially for common procedures like dental checkups and medications like insulin.