Reply #41: Absolutely right. I remember the family doctor making house calls

[despairing optimist]

and my parents paying in cash in the 60s. "Major medical," as the early fee-for-service plans were known, was originally a fringe benefit for executives that trickled down to the secretarial pool during the 50s and 60s. Companies were quite proud during job interviews to talk about major medical as a benefit, and that's where the monster grew. Our health should not be subject to the beneficence of an employer, however generous or well-intentioned that employer may consider itself. If we're not healthy, we can't work or find a job. But insurance companies have made enormous profits selling health insurance even with today's inflated prices. As long as they influence our politicians, we'll never get the health coverage we deserve, and by we I mean everyone, employed or not. The line about private insurance being more efficient than government plans like Medicare is nonsense to anyone who's had to jump through hoops to please both.