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Comment by malandrew | Hacker News Reader

All of those (housing, health care and child care) also suffer for excessive government meddling that prevents the free market from allowing proper competition.

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Sorry, but we have the MOST free market in the developed world when it comes to healthcare and it drives costs up. The free market is great for some things, but it's not the panacea that people think it is.

We have a legally entrenched doctors guild with a government granted monopoly on their profession. We have patents granting monopolies on chemicals and devices. This is not a free market. We have zoning laws granting landlords a monopoly on housing supply. Again, not free. All the modern equivalent of royal patents allowing the population to be farmed by the professions and the landed classes without competition. Hardly laissez-faire.

If the free market is the key to a better healthcare system then it should happen in degrees. A more free market should be more affordable than a less free market. Instead we have the most free healthcare market being the most expensive healthcare system. The is the opposite of what should be expected if your hypothesis was true.

Can you point me to a country that is "free"?

Every other developed nation has much more government control over its health care system, and much lower costs.

Also, you say "We have a legally entrenched doctors guild with a government granted monopoly on their profession" So are you saying that we would all be better off if anyone who wanted could call themselves a medical doctor? And if that is not what you advocate, then what is your specific plan?

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