> You have to ask yourself what makes healthcare unique to nearly every other well functioning market in the US. The bigger issue is there is third party paying

> You have to ask yourself what makes healthcare unique to nearly every other well functioning market in the US. The bigger issue is there is third party paying for things. Try to ask your doctor how much something costs and they'll stare at you like you have two heads. Imagine getting your car fixed without knowing how much it's going to cost Are other markets well functioning in the US? I'd argue Private Equity is ruining a lot of them. Also, you're missing one big fundamental issue. Healthcare is not a good candidate for a "free market", because it's an inelastic "good". You can't choose when to get sick or have health issues. You can't change the fact that prevention saves lives and money. So, healthcare cannot ever be a free market and function properly. The only way to make it function is either by centralisation or heavy regulation. Curiously the US is practically the only country that managed to screw up and have a bad mix of both options while also having a broken market.