Economically speaking, which system of health care would be most efficient? Single payer, free market or other?

[yep]

I am aware that there is often a discrepancy between social efficiency and competitive efficiency, and sometimes markets may only achieve the latter and create deadweight loss. I also know it is true that monopolies (like single-payer) often create DWL also, but can be efficient in some cases, maybe where there is induced demand involved.

[SDD]

Economically, the most efficient way would be for each person to be responsible for paying his own costs. It's that way when you pay for automobile expenses (and insured disasters). It's that way when you pay for homeowner expenses (and insured disasters). It's that way when you insure your family against premature death.
Economics tells you that when someone else is, or appears to be, paying for your choices, then decisions will not be efficient.

[Meg]

There are many reason why the market for health care is not efficient.

We are willing to let people walk if the can not afford a car, but find it unacceptable to let people die if the can not afford to pay for health care which means that the government will be involved so the system can not operate using only free markets.

Because people can not predict how much heath care they will need, they buy insurance and that itself requires large overhead cost so it can not achieve the efficiency that exist in the markets for most good and services. Once you have third parties paying the bill patients are no long motivated to keep cost down, and it does not matter if it is the government of the insurance company that is paying.

Efficient markets assume people have perfect information about the prices and quality of what they purchase but people seeking health care usually do not even know what they want to buy, it is the doctor that decides what they should purchase, and fee for service doctors have a financial incentive to recommend the maximum amount of care.

[Babs]

Far and away, single payer's the most efficient. Right now, the insurance companies are pocketing most of the money spent on health care. With single payer, there's competition. The government can act on the behalf of the recipient and negotiate on their behalf just as what is done in Medicare. My dad's on Medicare and had a pacemaker put in. He saw the bill and it was well over $100,000. My brother's on the Board at the hospital and asked the director how much Medicare payed on that operation. $26,000 is what they payed. My brother asked if they were still able to make a profit on that and the director replied, "Of course." There's so much waste in health care now. We have to eliminate the profit mongers and get it back to patient well-being.

[Leslie Goudy]

economically speaking we should look at reality and see the enormous potential for jobs in health care and construction of and dietary and pharmaceuticals and technical machinery and employees if all people were eligible