[hutchibk]

Even though our system is very problematic in many ways and totally upside down (driven by insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies instead of the consumer) I am personally mortified by a government run health system - talk about inefficiency, beaurocracy and financial waste. And in our current system, insurance companies have already turned beaurocracy into an artform... I know there are solutions out there to transform and turn it all around, however, I don't want another politically formed and mandated department in our govt... I want more time for the real thinkers to rise to the top in our country and forge a solution that is consumer driven. I personally believe that even though our insurance system is expensive and seemingly more and more off track every day, more people can afford insurance than currently carry it. I have many acquaintances who make a lot of money and spend it all on partying, smoking, keeping up with the Jones', and living beyond their means in very wasteful ways. Or they could devote a couple hundred a month for health insurance. There are many who could afford it, but don't make it a priority. I have friends who don't get it because they just believe it should be free, even though they can afford it. I wholeheartedly disagree with that concept. Yes, there are truly needy people in our country who need affordable healthcare. I know that. Now, about national health, I get tremendously pissed off at the concept of people who have lived a life of non-health and riskiness (lifetime smokers, addicts, promiscuity, crap diets/fast food, etc. etc.) and whose eventual catastrophic health concerns I might eventually have to contribute to take care of through my taxes, and that really chaps me. I have no solutions, but I am tremendously skeptical of jumping on a govt. run national health plan in the US. Yikes. And when the govt. decides to mandate how much a doctor's salary can be, then I fear we will quickly lose the finest medical care in the world.