Here’s a radical suggestion: stop calling welfare-for-doctors insurance. If you want insurance, those are known as major-medical policies under which the sniffle visits are still the patient’s responsibility — just like how insured car owners pay for their own oil changes.

With “health” “insurance,” neither side has price sensitivity. Patients ask whether it’s covered and if so, back the truck up to get as much as possible. Physicians see enormous pots of money in tax-favored plans and seek to scoop out as much as they can. The inevitable result of such an awful system — that traces back to workarounds on executive pay limits imposed during the FDR administration — is unbounded price increases. Politicians scream about getting spending under control, and regulators impose rationing. This is a terrible system, but it’s a self-inflicted wound.

In the U.S., at least, we’re seeing cash-only practices become more common. Their fees are affordable because their customers pay out of pocket and because they don’t have to hire entire departments just to deal with “insurance” providers.