Posted On: May 26, 2009, 9:36 am CDT

Posted By: JWilson

What about cost, it seems this is something that no one truly wants to address. Insurance companies only set prices based on what they expect to actuarily pay for claims, expenses and a small profit. So the solution is to control costs. Is the American public ready to have the conversation about what drives these costs?? I am a skeptic on this. The majority of Americans hear "universal health" and envision that they will be able to go to the doctor, hospital, clinic whenever they want and get any and all services that they want, without any or minimal costs? This is unrealistic, the money has to come from somewhere. Are people prepared for the time when their Mother, who is 85, obese, has heart problems and high blood pressure goes to the hospital is told to go home, we are not going to operate and she gets nothing but hospice care? Is the American public prepared to not spend tremendous amounts of money at the end of life and discuss these issues? Until we are, we will continue to see double digit increases in health care costs. If we are going to have a discussion on nationalized health care, we have to discuss ALL the problems that are driving the costs: end of life issues, poor food and health choices, malpractice issues, reimbursement rates for health care to name a few.