that can assist us with healthcare costs in the US. I think markets apply quite well in areas where treatments & surgeries are optional, and customers have choices. It's not easy to apply market forces when the customer is the victim of a heart attack or a stroke or a serious injury from a car accident.

Now, when we compare the US to other countries, our system is far more private and profit-driven than those other countries. We have mostly private doctors/providers, in private clinics or private hospitals, serving a customer base that is largely using private insurance or insurance that their private employer self-insures or has negotiated with a private insurance entity. And even when people have Medicare or Medicaid, they're often using private entities in Medicare Advantage or private administrators in Medicaid HMO plans. For some people, around 20 million or so, who buy their insurance on the ACA exchanges, they're buying from a private insurer and often choosing between various plans that are offered by more than one insurer.

Compared to other countries, we are much more "market-based" and/or private-based than any other country. However, those other countries, which are all supposedly socialist hellholes, cover their entire population and spend far less money on healthcare than we do, and they typically have longer lifespans, too.

I'm not advocating that we copy another country. But I am advocating that our system needs changes, and that we can look at what other countries are doing better than us, and occasionally borrow an idea or two from them.