If our health care system became more efficient (i.e. if a visit to the doctor cost $250 rather than $300) we'd spend even more money on health care.
Health care must be rationed, just like food and Ferraris. There are three ways to ration any commodity: price, queuing, and bureaucracy. Our economic system trusts price rationing - free markets - to balance demand and supply (ration) most goods and services, and this works very well. Supermarkets are filled with food at reasonable prices, gasoline is available at convenient locations and at tolerable prices.
Supermarkets and gasoline stations operate in competitive environments. They respond to price signals from their supplies and from consumer decisions to decide what to sell, at what price, when. If consumer demand increases, retailers tend to raise their prices and bid more to get more from their suppliers. When demand tapers, they cut prices or stop ordering. This all works amazingly well.
So what's different about health care?
