I just found this alarming article

[kandrathe]

Well your system screws the average guy(average by population numbers not by income).

Fortunetly our voting system pays more heed to the average guy than you. And for your information their are a large number of treatable(curaable by many definitions) cancers that are fairly expsense to treat. Breast cancer comes to mind.
I suspect most Americans are far more in favor of federalized health rather than your systen that would take away most the health care they all ready have.
Im really biting my tongue to not share my personal opinion of you.
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Sorry, however unfair, capitalism is the cause. We live in a system where individuals must compete against one another, in a societal survival of the fitest. If it makes you feel better to blame me for the system, well ok. Those who are wealthy will have access to alot of things the average guy would want, like a new heart or lungs for instance.

"Fortunetly our voting system pays more heed to the average guy than you." I don't want to burst your bubble on democracy, but our congressmen in DC are not the average people. They are more likely in the pocket of some HMO, or drug company.

Well, while this is not definitive, it is indicative of the new case/mortality of various kinds of cancer. Breast cancer is one of the easier to detect early types, and so it can often be caught before metastatis. It is not the death sentence it was 30 years ago, and I'm hopeful that most cancers will be curable in my lifetime.

Most Americans want full health care coverage for anything, and don't want to pay anything for it. Hence, the problem.

Here is another take on the problem;

Patients overuse medical resources since those resources appear to be free or almost free. Producers of medical equipment create new and more expensive devices, even if they are of only marginal benefit, since third-party payers create a guaranteed market. Attempts to rein in those costs have led to a blizzard of paperwork but proven ineffective in controlling costs.

The cure for the present problems is straightforward: the patient must once again be made the central actor in the medical marketplace. Patients need to be given the same motivations to economize on medical care that they have to economize in other markets. Tax laws need to be rewritten. The use of medical savings accounts needs to be promoted. High-deductible health insurance should be encouraged.

Returning the patient, and normal market principles, to center stage is all that is necessary to bring the costs of health care under control.
Stan Liebowitz is a professor of managerial economics in the Management School of the University of Texas at Dallas.

All I'm saying is that there should be a very simple predictable one size fits all plan for everyone that is affordable, which should address at a minimum, preventive care. After that, it should be up to the consumer.

The average worker pays about $13,000 per year for a family health plan. I think that is too high, especially when I'm one of those responsible people who only go to the doctor once per year for a physical. Inevitably, there will come a time in my life when I'm not healthy as an ox, and will acquire some health problems. I may have been better off by socking away the money in an IRA, then pay for my health problems when they arise. If my medical bills are way higher than what I can afford, then it is a welfare problem.