True market forces only exist when you have a buyer and a seller. That's not what we have with medical care in the U.S. today. What we have is a patient who doesn't pay the bills and a doctor who gets paid by an insurance company or a government agency. Neither one of them has any incentive to conduct himself in a way that would reflect actual market forces. The patient has no incentive to be judicious about the care he receives, and the doctor has no incentive to keep the patient happy.
I’m in agreement with all of that.
What I don’t understand is the mechanism for preventing a third party from developing an actuarial risk calculation and investing in that risk? Insurance seems to be a lucrative proposition...
Would the government forbid entry into the health market by third parties?
Would healthcare become so inexpensive that private citizens wouldn’t need to share the risk to avoid being wiped-out completely by an unexpected health crisis?
If so, would that reduce the number of health care providers available, leaving the market susceptible to price-fixing?
I believe the market can handle insurance speculators, and company sponsored insurance plans as well.