[Old North State]

It will be the biggest single driver of socialized medicine....

Lamentably, I agree with you entirely. More than half of a typical individual's total lifetime health care expense occurs in the last few years of life, and as more people live longer an even greater proportion of the medical spend will be on elder care. The demographics are immutable. At some point we must all be bundled into the same rationed care system or it will collapse under infinite demands from non-payers.

[DManA]

I believe at the integrated health care organization my wife works at, about 30% of their billings go uncollected. In what other industry could a company survive even a month with that default rate?

infinite demands from non-payers.