I think you're making a false assumption here though, particularly with this line:
>There will never be as much competition in medicine as there is in food (unless it is in the 'Uh, oh, a handful of companies own all of the farms' direction). So, even if we eliminate all regulation it still wouldn't solve the problem of competition.
This may be true, we don't necessarily need that level of competition and a lower level, but still competitive market can handle this. Rather, we're at the other extreme, where regulatory barriers are heavy enough essentially prevent competition, effectively ensuring monopoly.
A good example here would be the list of off patent drugs with no generic alternative. In particular the infamous case of Daraprim, where generic Daraprim could be made, but would have to go through the FDA approval process.
>There will never be as much competition in medicine as there is in food (unless it is in the 'Uh, oh, a handful of companies own all of the farms' direction). So, even if we eliminate all regulation it still wouldn't solve the problem of competition.
This may be true, we don't necessarily need that level of competition and a lower level, but still competitive market can handle this. Rather, we're at the other extreme, where regulatory barriers are heavy enough essentially prevent competition, effectively ensuring monopoly.
A good example here would be the list of off patent drugs with no generic alternative. In particular the infamous case of Daraprim, where generic Daraprim could be made, but would have to go through the FDA approval process.