Contrary to what people might like to think, the US does not really have a "private" healthcare system, we just institute the public healthcare different from the full-blown single-payer systems. The result is an odd hybrid that gets the worst of both worlds, the overpriced and inflation-ridden costs of a monopolistic system combined with the terrific inefficiencies and bureaucratic nonsense of a public funded system.
The US government is (obviously) still is very much involved in healthcare, the most obvious being medicaid and medicare, but also including subsidies for research and development, patent and copyright protection for prescription drugs (artificially restraining the supply of generic drugs), the FDA (an entire government institution specifically designed to legislate and limit the amount of drugs on the market), not to mention the obvious costs associated with the way the US handles civil litigation and torts against both doctors and health insurance companies. The simple fact that most doctors are actually restricted from making house calls anymore should be proof enough of how deeply the thumb of the government is in the healthcare industry.
I'm not in the slightest convinced that single-payer system would be more beneficial than a free market system, but calling what the US has a "free market" system is ridiculous.
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