>>Why did you think we had a consumer driven free market before?
Why did you think I thought that?
Check out the Commonwealth stats to see that (for example) New Zealand spends less than anybody else per capita and less than half of the US expenditure (or less than one third per capita if you exclude the un-insured) yet comes 7th overall and 4th in quality of care. That overall rating is pulled down by low equity where only the US does worse- something Obamacare aims to address.
I'll let you calculate for yourself the effect on your premiums if the cost of healthcare were halved to achieve better and universal coverage.
In fairness, there's more to this than the stats suggest- US care actually looks much better if you correct for outliers, but the costs are real.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
