[standapart]

There hasn't been a free market in health care in the US for decades-- thankfully though, the pig has kept it's lipstick and we give you the illusion of choice. Hopefully, in the next few years, we can just do away with this facade.

It may not be worth trumpeting this as an achievement, though. Just go ask any doc what they think of CMS.

[arcticbull]

There's no platonic 'free' market anywhere on earth, and I'm not sure there ever has been. Each society is a collection of socialized and privatized services. America has socialized fire departments, police departments, regulators, courts, health care for the poorest and old, army, passenger rail, mail delivery etc.

Some services are better provided collectively (schools, prisons, healthcare) and some are better provided by the private markets (Apple). The former strengthens the latter.

At the end of the day even the 'socialized medicine' debate isn't such a big decision. It's just about extending socialized medicine in the US from 40% of the population (today covered by Medicare and Medicaid) to 100%. It's clearly better of course - as John Oliver expressed 'there's a right way and a wrong way to do healthcare and we do it the wrong way'. But it is, on the spectrum of absolute socialism to absolute capitalism, a small tweak.