Because neither consumers nor producers function normally, healthcare needs a third party to ration resources. It’s a commodity, so resources are limited, but unlike almost every other commodity, normal supply and demand interactions do a poor job distributing it.
Providing healthcare requires resources, and resources are inherently limited. By contrast, rights — such as Locke’s life, liberty, and property — are free. They come from nature, God, the inherent dignity of a human being. Protecting rights requires resources only when other people try to take them away.
Healthcare may be different from other commodities, but it’s still a commodity. If left alone, the market would find an equilibrium. The problem is, most people don’t like the results. The natural equilibrium leaves many poorer, older, sicker people without health insurance.
By contrast, medicine is a complex field requiring years of study. Consumers don’t know what they’re doing, and the consequences of poor decisions can be immense. Buying healthcare is not a matter of reading online reviews and trying it out to see if you like it. For most patients, it’s “sure, whatever you say doc.”.