[dietrichepp]

I don't see how a correctly-working free market would lead to a different situation here. The market is necessarily inefficient:

1. Consumers don't have the skills required to estimate the value of medical care.

2. Consumers don't have the time to negotiate prices: if you're dying, you can't wait.

The question here is not doctor's salaries, that's a red herring. The question is why someone without insurance pays so much more than someone with insurance, if the care received is the same. It's because the insurance companies have the time and skills to negotiate prices, and individual consumers are under duress. It's the same reason that workers in unions earn better wages -- although the numbers are different: Wikipedia puts the gap between union and non-union wages at 21-32% in the US, and the gap between the cost of insured and non-insured care is much higher.

I say we have a moral duty to replace the current, broken, free-market system. Evidence from countries other than the US supports the theory that socialized health-care can be more efficient.