>demand is hard to forecast for an individual, almost completely inelastic and often extremely time sensitive
These don't preclude a free market working well. For instance, they're all apt descriptors of me when I find myself needing an Uber home. I'm not completely inelastic, since I could take a series of long bus rides to get home, or walk, but accepting for the sake of argument those aren't life-threatening, the cab companies more or less have me over a barrel. Or do they? We all know what keeps them from charging me more they do, even given the time sensitivity, lack of prediction, or inelasticity. It's competition.
The USA system doesn't work well, and I'm not necessarily saying that free market is the right solution, just pushing back on the notion that just because a good meets those criterion we are forced to throw our hands up and say the free market could never provide that.
Taxi demand is actually usually quite easy to forecast for an individual, which makes planning alternative competition easier, although we often don’t try anymore because we’re used to good app competition. This is before even getting to how much lower the infrastructure and personnel barriers are to competing in the medical space versus the taxi space.
I know that most nights I am going to want to sleep in my own bed, this is somewhat inelastic sure, but not a surprise. The apps can’t raise prices too much however because they are in competition with us making plans to use the bus or call a friend. There is not a good equivalent in the medical world, it’s webmd and herbal compresses versus licensed doctors and prescription only drugs, with your life on the line.
These don't preclude a free market working well. For instance, they're all apt descriptors of me when I find myself needing an Uber home. I'm not completely inelastic, since I could take a series of long bus rides to get home, or walk, but accepting for the sake of argument those aren't life-threatening, the cab companies more or less have me over a barrel. Or do they? We all know what keeps them from charging me more they do, even given the time sensitivity, lack of prediction, or inelasticity. It's competition.
The USA system doesn't work well, and I'm not necessarily saying that free market is the right solution, just pushing back on the notion that just because a good meets those criterion we are forced to throw our hands up and say the free market could never provide that.