We love that broken system. It provides very good health care and Expat is right, people will pay for the drugs and medical services they need to stay alive. Patients from Canada and other national systems come here when they cannot get the medical treatment they need there. What good is treatment you can't get when you need it, even if it is free?

As to HMOs, if an HMO does not allow your expenses, there are market alternatives for your employer. One of the reasons the system seems rocky is that those insurance companies are always trying to find a balance between customer demand and what they, the insurer, can afford to supply.

Medicare and Medicaid consistently underpay for medical services. Because governments, state and federal, are such a major players in the market, doctors and hospitals have no choice but to pay those prices, and then pass the expenses on to the private insurers or private individuals, which drive up those prices. This is not exactly keeping the market in line by the beneficence of government involvement. Government involvement has caused many of the problems in our health care system and we can only wonder how much of that "cure" our health care system can take.