We don’t have a free market in healthcare. We have a highly regulated one. Free market healthcare is lasik and boob jobs. Both have come down in price because they are not part of the insurance system. They’ve also gone up in quality due to competition and demand.

Dental care is also a 'free market' and I don't think I need to say how much of a disaster getting any sort of dental work can be in the US.

Why haven't dental costs fallen through the floor if it's a free market?

It's covered by most employer health plans, so patients don't see the true cost and don't shop around much. That's not the case for lasik or elective plastic surgery.

Of course since the latter are elective, customers have the luxury of shopping around and taking their time.

I'm not sure where you've been employed, but dental plans have always been separate from the actual health plans and generally cover nothing beyond giving a pittance per year that hardly rolls over. Once that's gone, you get to pay the full cost.

I've had to deal with the true cost of dental work and I can guarantee you anyone that's needed to deal with significant dental issues has had the same experience. So why hasn't the free market dropped down prices? Why are we still paying more for basic dental work compared to other countries?