If the "free market" isn't working in the US, that's because we don't actually have a truly free market here. The insurance companies are in between the consumers and the doctors, and that messes up the market bigtime. It also messes things up when employer plans give a small copay for drugs; this artificially increases demand by creating an artificially low price for the end user. What happens when you limit the price a consumer pays? Shortages. Look at the gas price cap in the 1970s, and rolling blackouts in CA in the late 90s. If you look at something that insurance companies typically don't cover, you'll see the free market at work. Compare, say, the price of LASIK today to the price at its inception. The free market works--if you let it.