[Experimentalist]

1. Health care does follow the rules of supply and demand. It's erroneous to claim otherwise.

2. Many if not most health care costs are not emergency services, and they include many elective non-emergency procedures, diagnostics, mental health issues, drugs etc. A lot of costs come from behavioral choices and are preventable by responsible individuals.

"Emergency care represents less than 3 percent of the nation’s $2.1 trillion in health care expenditures while covering 120 million people a year."

http://www.acep.org/content.aspx?id=25902

3. Regarding compassion - Hospitals are not staffed with nurses, doctors, advanced medical services based on compassion -- all that costs money, labor and raw materials, and takes investment, education, specializations and entreneurship- all of which are not achieved through compassion.

Economics and finance applies regardless of intention (ie. compassion).