[roamer_1]

The false premise is that one must have insurance.
Any supposed system that is based upon the need for insurance is sure to ensconce, increase, and perpetuate the huge profit margins currently enjoyed by the insurance and health industry.

[the808bass]

Any supposed system that is based upon the need for insurance is sure to ensconce, increase, and perpetuate the huge profit margins currently enjoyed by the insurance and health industry

I would imagine that the health insurance profit margins are relatively low compared to the rest of the economy. 5.5% is not the holy grail of capitalist profit margins.

[DoughtyOne]

...huge profit margins currently enjoyed by the insurance and health industry.

Huge profits by the health industry?  Please rethink that one.  Try to think of a garage where you take your car in for serious repairs, and YOU TELL the mechanic what you will pay and he still has to do the work.  That is what is taking place in the health industry today.

The federal and state governments as well as the insurance industry dictate what the hospitals will be paid.  On top of that, indigents who present themselves to the emergency rooms have to be served, and nobody will pay for varying degrees of what their services cost to provide.

It is seriously grating to see that health insurance companies post tens of billions in profits each year, knowing that they don't provide one single aspirin, one band-aide or take out one splinter for the money.

Hospitals provide this service, and insurance companies siphon off hundreds of billions of dollars without providing any direct service at all.  Hospitals go belly up, while insurance companies continue to post large profits.

Take a long look at your local hospital and wonder what you're going to do when they are gone.  What will you do when half as many physicians are licensed?  That is the goal of any socialized program.  And that's where we are headed.  And it's not the provider's fault.