Reply #76: If you are looking for cost constraints, look at medicare and medicaid...

[Gronk Groks]

...Your administration costs are less than HALF of private insurers.

Let's get real, medical costs become very expensive with an aging population. In 1900 the average life expectancy was a tad over 50 years of age. We have increased this almost 50% in just over 100 years. As technology improves we WILL live longer, but the costs are going to skyrocket. Just 1 week in intensive care in the last week of live can cost more than the rest of that individuals lifetime.

The end result? The income needed to access the medical care we know is available to those with the dough, will continue to grow faster then most people's income. We have 46 million uninsured now, how many more in 10 years?

Socialized medicine is NOT perfect. It is better than many(Most?) people have now. My company provides insurance at no cost to the employee. You only have to pay the $5,000 dollar deductible first (10,000 per couple).

Let's say the government does something similar. If you could buy insurance with a $500 deductible that would pay the first $5000 until the Government Medical plan kicked in, would you? Higher taxes, yes. But I would bet if we could get out of the Iraq war the Federal Budget would still shrink.