I had to go to the ER yesterday. I was taken to the closest ER. You bring up geographic monopolies without any irony and yet healthcare has huge and very obvious geographical monopolies.

At the ER I was made to sign something on the way in in a state in which I couldn’t really tell what I was signing. I was given various drugs and sent through a CT scan. I had no idea what was going on. I certainly was in no position, with symptoms of a life threatening condition on top of being incapacitated to say “hey hold up, I think the Safeway has cheaper CT scans can you guys transfer me there!”

Healthcare is entirely different from buying groceries. It does not and will never operate like a typical market for typical commodity items.