In the 1960s and 1970s, the US had only three automobile manufacturers: Ford, GM, and Chevrolet.

If you wanted to buy a car, those were essentially your only choices. They were big, gas-guzzling, expensive, and unreliable. Most cars’ odometers only had five digits because it was practically unheard of that your car would reach 100,000 miles.

When the energy crisis came along and fuel prices skyrocketed and gas had to be rationed, along came these funny little Japanese cars. They were inexpensive, and VERY fuel efficient, and astonishingly reliable.

Fast forward to now: there are more automobile choices than ever before: Ford, GM, Chevy, Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Nissan, and more. And all the cars today are significantly more reliable than they were 40 years ago, and when you consider the massive technology and safety improvements - and adjust for inflation - they’re more affordable than ever.

Competition does that: it drives down price and drives up product quality.

The same could be done with healthcare. As it stands now, insurance carriers are prohibited from crossing state lines. That is, whichever state you live in, your choices for carriers are limited to just those that operate within your state. In much the same way that the US only had three auto makers.

If you allowed competition in - other carriers from other states - they’d compete against each other for your money and the result would be lower prices (lower cost of health insurance) and better quality (better coverage).

A truly free market would resolve these issues. But as it stands now, the insurance carriers in your state run not quite a monopoly, but at least and oligopoly, all of which is sanctioned by the government.