I don't think what we had before could really be described as a "free market system". It was an employer-based healthcare system that shut individual buyers out

I don't think what we had before could really be described as a "free market system". It was an employer-based healthcare system that shut individual buyers out of the only good deals, enacted by the government via the tax code. The new system is the same, except now there's no pre-existing conditions and the individual is forced to buy a plan. The plans themselves are the same crappy plans with a few tweaks. The consumer of healthcare is still completely disconnected from the price of the goods sold, completely screwing up market signals and making sure prices stay astronomically high. This is not a free market by any measure.