[Dasaji]

Well, there is some consideration that needs to be given to the middle class person schmucking in a $40K year job he/she hates but stays there only because it has a sweet health insurance plan. Glen Beck touched on this the other day before the STOU address and the cap was going to be $10,000...now it's been raised to $15000, so maybe it won't hurt as badly.

[Hendrix]

That "sweet health insurance plan" is one of the major factors that is causing our high health costs in this country.

Allow me to briefly explain:

A free market economy works when people make buying decisions based on a cost/benefit analysis. That decision helps make sure that people don't buy too much or pay too much for them. Furthermore, it makes sure that the prices, which are determined by supply and demand, are correct as determined by the market.

If you take that decision making process away from people, it leads to the wrong allocation of resources, high prices, wrong demand and supply, etc.

Our government has made tax laws that make health care "free" or without cost to employees who get free health insurance from their employers. Therefore, there is no cost/benefit price decision making process when they run to the doctor for a cold or a scratch and it is free. In short, people waste, overuse, and buy things at too high of a cost when they are not paying for it directly.

The fix is to not have insurance that covers every little scratch, cold, etc. and is not totally free to the person seeking medical treatment so that the person will have to decide how much health care is worth the cost and whether to get the care in the first place.

Also, the tax laws are illogical in the sense that employees get health care from untaxed dollars (compensation that is not taxed) from their employers, yet people who buy health insurance themselves (self employed, unemployed, etc.) have to pay for it with taxed dollars.

The main problems that are causing high health costs are (1) too much insurance that covers too many non-catostrophic illnesses and thus leads to using too much health care, (2) bad tax laws that give people "free health" care and cause people to use too much and pay too much for health care.

In short, the government has caused this problem with tax laws and insurance laws that make insurance companies provide health care coverage that covers too many things.

If this were left up to the free market, there would not be any health care problem in this country. However, government intervention caused the market not to work.