[nsvd2]

In no way shape or form is the medical industry in the US a free market, it's one of the most heavily regulated sectors in the economy. Remember when the government wanted to make purchasing health insurance mandatory? Forcing employers to pay for their employees health insurance greatly distorts the market. And many other things...

By the way, as much as people complain about the profit seeking motives of insurers, many of them have been performing abmysally in the last six months. As it turns out, our current system is bad for just about everyone.

[ciupicri]

In Romania the employer takes a cut from the employee's salary and gives it to a government agency for the health insurance (some thing with income tax, social security (pension), etc). I think this is happening in other European countries as well.

Some employers also offer as a bonus a sort of subscription at a private clinic, so you can see a private doctor or have an operation for a lower price or even for free.

[simonh]

Same in the UK.

In the USA the government health programs for people in low incomes, children and pensioners cost about as much as a typical European single payer health system. Then tax payers get to pay to be gouged by health insurance companies to get any cover for themselves.

[rectang]

> In no way shape or form is the medical industry in the US a free market, it's one of the most heavily regulated sectors in the economy.

If any regulation at all makes a market not "free", then there are no free markets as soon as we have any laws.

Like all free markets, this one is regulated. There are degrees of freedom.

[shaftoe]

In this market, neither the producer nor the consumer are responding to price signals and often neither knows what anything costs. The Payer (literal healthcare industry terminology) does but isn't producing nor consuming the service.

This is why this isn't a free market. It's not about regulation, it's about the system being divorced from responding to market dynamics.

[alistairSH]

There are degrees of freedom, but within the American framework, medical care is on the less-free end of the spectrum.

Aside all the insurance stuff, you cannot open an MRI imaging lab or similar without a letter of need from the local government. The supply side is quite literally gated by existing players in the market (via campaign bribes and similar).

[nickff]

Just to tack on, dentistry is an example of a somewhat freer market than 'healthcare', and veterinary care is an example of an even freer (though somewhat different) medical service.