I just found this alarming article

[kandrathe]

I always found it odd that we (in the U.S.) as individuals purchare our own car insurance, homeowners insurance and life insurance, but rely directly on our place of employment to determine the quality of our health care insurance.  How did that come to be?
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Back in the time of strong unions and when the majority of employees were in one, they negotiated to have the company supply health care.

The problem with health care now is that we are developing more and more expensive treatments and performing them on people who have very few years remaining in their life span. It's always a hard call, but does a 87 year old need expensive surgery to improve the quality of life for what is remaining.

Personally, I think the solution is to split health care into two types. The first is preventive care, normal predictable health problems and minor ailments, or on the job injuries which can be totally covered inexpensively by your employer. So it would be very similiar to dental insurance. We don't have a dental insurance crisis, because there are not revolutionary and expensive new ways to fix teeth.

The second type of insurance would be elective and cover chronic conditions or catastrophic problems and would be purchased by the individual. There is still an issue of when a person has no insurance and cannot afford to be ill, which is still a welfare problem. The moral question is; Can we afford as a society to try to keep everyone alive that we can keep alive and should we pay for everyone to have everything fixable fixed?