There's more to it than mere profit. Better minds than ours have given this a lot of thought.

Most middle class folks who can afford health insurance have the resources to survive a layoff, or to change careers, get a new job, or start their own business. They have the freedom to do something else if their job isn't working out. Or at least, they USED to.

But if health care is expensive, and insurance is rising in cost every day, the equation changes. You have to put up with the crap your boss is dishing out because your family's health and even life is threatened. The American health care system is a way of keeping workers under control, intimidated, scared, and docile. It is just another tool to keep salaries down.

Efficiency, expense and taxes are only minor considerations, since the poor and the dying eventually get very expensive but shabby treatment in emergency rooms anyway, at public expense.

This is is why any form of government medical assistance is anathema to the right wing: it helps add to "upward pressure on wages". And preventing THAT is worth spending public money on!

No, I am not saying a bunch of evil men sit around a table hatching these diabolical schemes. Its just that in a for-profit system, natural market forces favor this happening. As you point out, free markets don't work when you have no choice but to purchase the product, or your kid dies.