The Shadow, your claim… :

““Even if individual economic decisions were entirely rational, which they’re obviously not, when it comes to life and death, the only rational decision is to do whatever it takes to live. That’s an unusual economic decision.””

Is wholesale wrong. This is because the VAST amount of healthcare dollars spent are not based on imminent life and death situations. They are substantively normal consumer decisions… Which dentist for a cavity, which doctor for your checkup, whom to see when you want a flu shot, and the list is nearly endless. Just like the example of food, you MUST buy food to live, yet our daily decisions are not “life and death” in urgency. Instead, we buy what we need in a competitive market.

In the case of health care, the EXCEPTION where extraordinary expenses are involved in immediate life and death situations, this is why we buy INSURANCE which moderates the financial risk of these extraordinary circumstances. Well, that’s the PROPER role of insurance… Instead of buying insurance to pay for ordinary needs, insurance should pay for the emergency type contingency, and we should pay for our ordinary needs by purchasing it in a competitive free market.