[okie01]

"Basic economics, gov't $ skews supply/demand driving prices up."

Prices will rise, in order to absorb every cent of the available pool of money in the market. When government enlarges the pool, they distort the market -- and everybody ends up paying more.

And you are so, so correct about what those government $s have done to our health care system and college tuition -- the very two items incorporated in my standard lecture on the subject.

[baseballmom]

It's not always a matter of can the doctor afford the insurance. Some doctors are no longer able to even get insurance. The companies are simply not offering insurance to certain specialties in some states.

In Pennsylvania the situation has now reached a crisis. Orthopedics, Neurosurgery, OB-GYN are severely affected. Some doctors are just packing it in - leaving their practices and going elsewhere. A real financial hardship, as so many practices are still heavily mortgaged. It's tough to just walk away - but how many can afford to pay $200,000 in malpractice. Recently, many of the Pennsylvania doctors recieved a nice "Dear Doc" letter, warning them about "abandoning" their patients and the consequenses thereof.

The day is coming when people are going to be unable to get top notch medical care in cities like Philadelphia and it's suburbs - because the young doctors are not coming here and/or staying here.