> I know people are going to worry about rare (expensive) conditions not being covered, and this is indeed a problem. I don't have an answer to this. One good t

> I know people are going to worry about rare (expensive) conditions not being covered, and this is indeed a problem. I don't have an answer to this. One good thing about competition though, is that it drives innovation. Provider prices will absolutely be set based on what they know people can pay. If people can't pay as much, the only thing for them to do is drop prices. I don't think so. If providers can't expect to be paid adequately (in relation to their capital investment, research costs, operating costs, etc) for dealing with "rare (and expensive) conditions", because people don't have insurance (whether private, medicare, or whatever), just a modest amount of cash in any given patient's pocket, do you really think they'll want to stay in that market?