Brian Holtz in reply to Michael H. Wislon:

Health care is subject to a superfecta of market failures:

• asymmetric information between doctors and patients,
  
• adverse selection of insurers by insurees,
  
• moral hazard tempting insurees, and 
• free-riding of potential donors leading to the underfinancing of charity healthcare.

However, health care is also subject to massive government failure such as

• tax preferences that artificially bind health insurance to employment, hide costs from consumers, and encourage over-insurance,
• price controls dictated by a bloated mandatory insurance program that (thanks to high senior voting propensity) is funded via inter-generational income transfers,
  
• laws against interstate competition in health insurance,
  
• rent-seeking through legislated preferences sought by unions and hospitals and insurers and pharmaceutical patent holders,
• artificial barriers to entry via professional licensure and excessive safety/efficacy regulations, and
  
• laws preventing insurers and consumers from agreeing on lower-cost lower-coverage insurance.