[asinclair]

What really, Really, REALLY gets me is that both sides forget the real problem: medical care costs are through the roof. So the whole insurance thing is not the root problem. This I tried to argue with all my representatives at the time of this bru-ha-ha, but all ignored me, Republicans and Democrats alike.

So let's say that the Supreme Court does throw out Obamacare. What will Congress do? The right thing? Don't make me laugh. They will try to patch insurance again, instead of striking at the core of the problem.

I'm glad to see that we don't have to depend on government to Do The Right Thing. From the New York Times: "...a group of nine medical specialty boards plans to recommend on Wednesday that doctors perform 45 common tests and procedures less often,... . Eight other specialty boards are preparing ... additional lists of procedures their members should perform far less often." THERE is the heart of the problem. THERE is why my own hospital stay for a heart problem blossomed to $30K out of pocket.

And why are doctors performing tests that provide diminishing returns? Part of the problem is legal exposure -- people with dead relatives who say "if you had performed this test, my Aunt Mae would be alive today." Part of the problem is a lack of incentive to avoid unnecessary tests: "Don't worry, your insurance will pick it up." (No, they won't, not anymore.) And a good part of the problem is the attitude of the patient or patients' family: "We have to do everything we can."

So, it's a three-pronged problem: reform of the medical tort system, education of the doctors about the fiscal side of their decisions, and education of the patients or guardians about effective testing. Notice the word "insurance" didn't enter into this summation -- and the reason is that insurance should be in the background.

I've been against single-payer for some time, because I think that the free market should be given a chance to operate. But that hasn't happened because the lawyers are now dictating medical treatment by the malpractice lawsuits they file. The medical societies, by agreeing to standards of practice, can reign in the practice of medicine in the courtroom. So when we unshackle medicine from law, we might get somewhere.

Or not. Politics has a huge amount of inertia build into it...

[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

-—What really, Really, REALLY gets me is that both sides forget the real problem: medical care costs are through the roof. So the whole insurance thing is not the reaason-—

Third party payment is the main reason for skyrocketing medical costs.

Notice that Lasik eye surgery, which is not covered by insurance, has decreased in cost continuously.

[ctdonath2]

Nobody wants to face the reality that there is no upper boundary to what goods & services may be rendered for a price. One can always get better medicine & treatment (given enough $$$), and of course everyone wants it (if $$$ were no object). Via normal supply-and-demand this is a self-limiting issue ... but with the onset of insurance services to spread the costs, and then the involvement of police-power-backed government to spread those costs further, we can strain the limits and get everyone used to getting whatever they want - not realizing that by stretching supply-and-demand the system will either snap back or break.