Thanks for the well-reasoned answers.

BTL, you mention, "A cancer medication for post breast cancer hormone therapy used by women in Germany, made by the same company that makes the same medication for American women, the only difference is the name and the price, delivered by US Post Office to ones ..........door is 1/5th the price." Isn't this one reason to get some reglation back into an unregulated system? Same thing where one or two health care corporations control 90% of all the insurance in one state- that seems like monopoly or oligopoly rather than genuine free enterprise competition. I realize many on teh board favor Hyaek/Friedman economics- I grew up with Keynesian- which predicted exactly wht has occurred the last thirty years. An unregulated marketplace ends up not encouraging free enterprise and entrepreneurship in established markets and services, but rather encourages the use of capital to buy up or merge with competition.

Thus came the trust-busting of the early 20th century. I wonder if we haven't reached the same levels here in some commodities- pharmaceuticals and oil, where the market is either mutually exclusive or manipulated in price-fixing. It's the case of the government being an umpire- simply calling balls & strikes without power to impact the sysrem, or rather a rules committee to establish the best methods possible for a good performance.

Of course there is the problem of patents for medications, yet outside the U.S.
they don't seem to be such a powerful force.