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I’m glad your husband is recovered and doing well.

I don’t think you followed the (short) thread of what I was responding to. A poster was saying Romney’s plan to have everyone buy insurance was against freedom and FREEpers should realize that. I was taking the other side, that in the end we all pay for those getting free care because of higher hospital costs passed onto those with insurance and copays. So, a plan where everyone is covered (somehow, details will be agonizing, I know) will actually drive costs down.

I personally think we need to get rid of insurance companies. Costs have only excalated to where the average working person cannot afford even a doctor’s visit without insurance - only after insurance existed. Before that, doctors didn’t make outrageous amounts of money and people could afford to go to them. Hospitals didn’t charge $5 for one tylenol! Health care, like illegal aliens and everything else, has gotten so out of control by TPTB turning a blind eye.

Costs have only excalated to where the average working person cannot afford even a doctor’s visit without insurance - only after insurance existed. Before that, doctors didn’t make outrageous amounts of money and people could afford to go to them.

Costs have escalated, but doctor's incomes have remained relatively stagnant. If you graduate from med school with, say, $150K in debt and you make $90K/yr, it's not a great economic proposition.

The average internal med doc here in the Midwest probably gets $45-55 per office visit (including your copay). You'd be better off paying cash, in many cases. It would make the doctor's job easier (no staff to fight insurance companies for their payment) and he would make more money with the reduced overhead.

I talked to one gastroenterologist who asserted he would make more money if every patient who was getting a colonoscopy just put a $100 bill on the counter when they came in. Insurance pays in the neighborhood of $300-350 for a colonoscopy. Getting reimbursed can be a little difficult, though.

Doctor's are forced to see more patients these days to make the same amount of money. Surely you've noticed that.

So, a plan where everyone is covered (somehow, details will be agonizing, I know) will actually drive costs down.

HUH???

Then let's apply these same (undisclosed details) to transportation:

"A 'plan' where everyone drives a new Cadillac will actually make getting to work cheaper!"