Quote Originally Posted by maladroit
"A society that leans more towards more free markets will always be more productive than their left leaning counterparts."

- then why doesn't the free market approach work with US health care? despite paying twice as much per capita for health care compared to canada, americans see their doctors less often, and spend less time in hospital than canadians, and experience a 2.5 year shorter lifespan, along with higher infant mortality...that's not very productive
There are plenty of factors that lead to high life expectency, of which are far more heavily weighted than "health systems" to reflect total life expectancy. One of which is lifestyle, another is stress; this truly says something that goes along with part of the OP's premise.

Secondly, there is not a free market in regards to healthcare... It's heavy regulations here in the US lead to an oligopoly of firms. State regulatins alone in regards to insurance completely distorts the market.