It's funny you mention the ventilators issue. NYC had a lot of ventilators at one point. Bloomberg had a major emergency fund set aside for them. Later administrations let them fall into disrepair, and then they were sold off at auctions.
That's not the fault of the private market but instead government.
Also, we actually have better medical equipment and more of it in most cases as compared with a lot of other countries. We have a lot more MRI machines proportionate to our population than most other countries, for example.
The public systems of a lot of countries tend to be worse about shortages of equipment and shortages of care. Our system is designed to move people in and out of hospitals quicker, so as to make more money. In a public system, there's more incentive to keep beds filled.