Questions is: do voters want to pay the taxes to proved very expensive end-of-life treatments which provide brief (a weeks to months) life extension?
Some of the signs I saw in the tea party coverage ("Hands Off OUR Medicare") indicate that the answer must be yes.
Which means we drive the Medicare bus at its current speed until the wheels fly off and we're left with a smoking wreck at the roadside.
Think for a moment of the vast politico-industrial complex backing up the modern antiseptic sterilized bandaid.
It costs a lot, and yet, if we'd just let the kiddies bleed their bodies would quickly form scabs and healing would proceed in a natural and healthful fashion just like it did for hundreds of millions of years.
If we could shut down the intrusive bandaid business think of the billions of dollars we'd save.