[durasell]

It's also expensive because it's a free market, the drug companies etc. are going to charge as much as they can (which they should). Like any other business, they don't have a benchmark they reach and say, "Okay, halt the price increases, we've made enough money!" It's also expensive because you have a lot of non-paying "customers" in the form of illegals and folks who simply don't have the money to pay. And too, we now have a lot of fancy-pants equipment like MRIs that are pricey items.

[Jeff Chandler]

It's also expensive because you have a lot of non-paying "customers" in the form of illegals and folks who simply don't have the money to pay.

Millions and millions of them. Then there are the lawyers...

[GSlob]

Medical care is not, and cannot be, a free market for a very simple reason - unless a customer is after some absolutely elective procedure, the customer really needing medical care is not quite a dispassionate rational market customer comparing the prices [not readily available anyway] and quality of the product prior to purchase. Sometimes the bests doctor is the nearest one.