I agree that someone is buying and selling, what I mean is that it doesn't make sense to talk about healthcare recipients as participants in a market. Obviously

I agree that someone is buying and selling, what I mean is that it doesn't make sense to talk about healthcare recipients as participants in a market. Obviously firefighters purchase equipment and sell their labor to the government, but we don't refer to homeowners as buyers in a firefighting market. If we forced them to pay a fee after being saved from a fire, that wouldn't somehow constitute a market. The same is true for any other essential government service: we created socialized systems because they can't function as markets. > You cannot buy a parking ticket Exactly, just like you can't buy an unexpected medical bill. You still have to pay it though. The fact that rich people sometimes choose to accept a parking ticket or choose to purchase citizenship in a more favorable tax environment is not evidence of a market, in fact it's the opposite. If 99% of "buyers" are forced to participate but have 0 decision-making power, and a handful of rich people are able to (sometimes) shop around, you are not describing a market.