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"I am starting to think that Obama has been played by the insurance industry."

Respectfully disagree. I believe Obama played the insurance industry. They were totally on board with Pelosi/Obama thinking they would get 10's of thousands of new premiums. I actually believe they missed the unintended circumstances that was in the small print. I was amazed that they would lobby for "pre-existing conditions" and "parental extension for childrun up to 26". That's hardly insurance.

The made their bed and now they're pulling out or increasing premiums, co-pays, and obscene deductibles because of their bad decisions.

I read Trump's fix and he's right on. Interstate competition along would fix this mess - more competition = lower prices. It's called free market enterprise. Unless it's corrupted by greedy players and/or cronyism, it always works. It's a wonder to me that SO many nations have followed our successful formula, but yet our leaders want to reverse it as Europe has done. Any wonder Breixt occurred?

Not only should there be interstate competition, but we need to reconfigure what insurance pays for. One of the reasons medical costs are so high, is that insurance covers too much. Pharmaceutical companies can charge anything they want when a third party is paying. The patient sees only the copay. Same with any medical procedure.

The cost of processing and the paperwork involved in insurance billing is costly. If we returned to paying cash for office visits, the cost of them would drop. Doctors would compete for business and not be burdened with paperwork. If insurance only covered extremely specialized drugs, the more common drugs would drop in price due to competition and consumer's unwillingness to pay high prices(free market). If they aren't selling drugs, they aren't in business.

Health insurance could then be focused on hospitalization and catastrophic needs, rather than every little medical need. Third party payment eliminates the direct financial relationship between consumer and provider and drives up prices.

Trump is wrong about that, and he's wise not to spend much time trying to explain how he'd "fix" the system.

Any business model for a product or service that is sold through third-party payment processes is doomed to fail -- and it doesn't matter if the "third party" is an insurance company or a government agency. All of the economic and pricing forces related to supply and demand in a business transaction go out the window when you have buyers and sellers who don't deal directly with each other.

The only was to "fix" this system is to have people pay for health care services out of their own pockets. Anyone who suggests such a scenario can expect to get about 5% of the vote in any given election. LOL.