[pembrook]

Nothing about US healthcare resembles a free market in any sense of the word.

The US in fact has government healthcare for anyone over 65, anyone under 22, anyone disabled, anyone who has been in the military, and anyone who is poor (essentially half the population).

The other half outside the government system is nothing like a free market either, due to the existence of the first half combined with well-meaning policies that ultimately create the worst kind of adverse incentives.

That said, the US funds basically half of global medical research while Europe funds only a third while having double the population. So again, the EU centralized government system is absolutely more efficient overall, but the messy (only slightly more decentralized) US system drives far more innovation.