jim rozen wrote:

In article t, Gary Brady
says...

To give you some reference point, I was born in 1955. The appendectomy that
I had in 1963 cost $150. That included 3 days in the hospital. My parents
were self employed and had no access to gold plate health insurance, but
health care was affordable then. The huge medical subsidies of the Johnson
administration, i.e. Medicare/Medicaid, and their ensuing regulation, set
off a spiral of inflation in healthcare costs that has not stopped till this
day.

I take it then, that you are in complete favor of my plan to lower
heathcare costs, by simply enacting a federal law that outlaws all
private medical insurance, and also eliminates medicare?

You will hear *howls* of anguish from all the insurance companies,
but I assure you, all the money that is being paid to doctors and
hospitals, through the insurance companies, will still be present
after the upheaval has happened. The money will still be there, the
doctors will still have folks to pay them.

Nobody has yet mentioned the *real* reason why healthcare is getting
more and more expensive - that reason is quite simple. The demographics
in the US are such that more and more of our population is above
age 70 or 80. Elderly folks use more healthcare, and the younger
folks are subsidising their costs.

Along with eliminating all kinds of medical insurance, the 'rozen
plan' includes barring folks above age 75 from seeing doctors.
Then we could see a return to the *real* good old days of _15_ dollar
appendectomies.

Jim

Perhaps you should address the price of drugs first?

Recently proscribed Mobic 7.5 mg, cost in here, US$27.20 per 100.
Checkout some prices in the US:
http://www.pricescan.com/health/items/item900129.asp
Then tell me why.

Tom
http://www.pricescan.com/health/items/item900129.asp