Yes, but is it a kind of Alfred E.Neuman smile, all yellow with teeth missing?
On a serious note,the advent of dental insurance,a relative "johnny come lately" to the insurance business,seems to have caused a huge increase in the cost of dentistry,and subsequently a larger "cavity" in household budgets around the country.[purely anecdotal]
However, if you find the cost of dentistry "unpalatable" then you should "brace yourself" at the cost of orthodontia!

Does any nation have a purely market-based health care system, and if so, how is that working out for them?
Posted by Michael

I could be mistaken, but I believe we were there prior to Johnson's Great Society programs of the mid 60s. We had the VA & Military health systems, but no other govt health coverage that I am aware of. Anybody else have any more info about this? Seems to me, if there hadn't been a need, Johnson would have had a hard time getting us Medicare & Medicaid, doncha think? Granted, he did have a Democratic majority in Congress, but as a nation, we were also more fiscal conservatives.

Why is the right's answer to everything to obsess about the problems other countries face while avoiding facing up to our own failings?

For the same reason everybody does that, criticism is easy to come up with and fits nicely into news sound-bites. Solutions take work.

Why is the right's answer to everything to obsess about the problems other countries face while avoiding facing up to our own failings?

The answer to the first question is: None (AFAIK).

Thus the answer to the second question is problematic.

Ok, then has any nation ever _tried_ to develop a market-based healthcare system, and if so why didn't it work? For all of our desire to implement such a thing, do we have any reason to think it would actually work?

And if a third of our population does not have dental insurance I would bet that a significant number of Americans do resort to pulling out their own teeth as well. Having had only one toothache in my life where I had to have the tooth pulled I know how the agony of a toothache enventually becomes unbearable. I would have done it myself if I had to, it was that bad.

As has been noted repeatedly, the US health care system is not "free market" because of the amount of government involvement. Does any nation have a purely market-based health care system, and if so, how is that working out for them?

The answer to the first question is: None (AFAIK).

Thus the answer to the second question is problematic.

The problem, though, is that there is no comparative data for the U.S. system, let alone some of the more well-regarded state-run models. Certainly, coverage for dental care is rather mediocre in most American health plans.

Correction: Coverage is non existent in most American health plans. Medicaid for adults only covers extractions. Anyone know what Medicare covers? I have never experienced a private general health plan that covers dentistry. I don't know what percentage of Americans resort to DIY dentistry, but I know I am not alone.

In the late 70s, I was fortunate enough to have separate dental coverage for about a year. It made it affordable enough to have the fillings done I needed at the time. Then I lost that job, & the coverage. All those filled teeth are now gone or stubs. Two of them & several pieces I pulled out myself when the pain of pulling them became only slightly worse than the pain of leaving them alone.