First of all,"$1601.51 in the year 2007 has the same "purchase power" as $300 in the year 1970."

Inflation adjusted, there is still at least a 500% difference in price.

America is the only modern country in the world with a medical industry based on an old fashioned economic model.

All medicine tody is much more sophisticated. The average experienced "doctor" in 1970 could not even get into medical school today. Hospitals have all kinds of equipment available and they really cannot offer a stripped down service with lower coswt and a higher death rate than other hospitals.

Medicine today does not even resemble medicine of 1970, just as 1970 did not resemble the 30's (before penecillin). Fifty years before THAT doctors did not know about germs. Six months school and a bag of tools and one was state of the art before 1900.

Medicine is basically a "new" thing and we can't pretend it's just private business like a barbershop or a T Shirt store or a tattoo parlor. The world is what it is. America is the only modern country in the world with a medical industry based on an old fashioned economic model.

Government does do some kinds of things better than "private" industry. Health insurance is one of them because it has to include everybody.

But everybody else is doing it...

Yep. In England, it's $45,000 per person per year. If it costs more than that, a treatment won't be approved.

Government does do some kinds of things better than "private" industry. Health insurance is one of them because it has to include everybody.

Why dose it have to include everyone? When did full health care coverage become something we are entitled to? I currently don't have any insurance since I'm unemployed. It's just a bad investment at this point since I don't know when I will find a job I can either pay for insurance that I have not used since 2003 or keep up with my other bills. If I have a major health issue it could trash my credit or when I quit paying my other bills it will trash my credit. Either way the results would be the same except If the past is any indication the odds of needing insurance sure do not justify the payments.

Another way you can play the odds to keep your cash, is run your cars under a personal loan you then can raise your deductibles to 2k or more, I've saved enough to make up the gap in 3 years. Same reason the insurance companies "wave" the deductibles if you are accident-free for X years.

It needs to include everybody because everyone has to be covered. Simple. You yourself still plan to get health care even if you cannot afford to pay. You'll just "trash your credit". So, the rest of the world will "pay", just like universal coverage would do.

Or you could have the courage of youyr convictions, you are NOT entitled, just sit at home and die without bothering anyone.

Everyone is entitled to "life". That's just basic. And your post is consistant with an assumption that you are "entitled" to "life".

Health coverage IS universal, we might as well admit it and set up a logical plan of coverage.

Inflation adjusted, there is still at least a 500% difference in price.

Interestingly, Japan has the longest life span of any nation on earth, yet has fewer doctors per capita than any other First-World nation.

And then there was the rest of my post...