[olliej]

Largely because you need to cover follow on medical bills incurred by malpractice, coupled with a failure to adequately restrict the harm from malpractice (ndas on settlements for instance work to cover up patterns of malpractice)

[spacemanmatt]

And because individuals pay, instead of the government. So when individuals have a problem, they're left to prosecute (sue) a doctor on their own instead of having a whole single-payer system behind them.

[olliej]

yup, which also necessarily needs to cover both the medical care and the legal fees. And interest on loans needed for medical care, etc, etc