[liberallarry]

I don't see why technological advance couldn't reduce health care costs and retirement costs to where they are affordable. I read somewhere that something like 90% of medical costs are incurred in the last two years of life. Eliminate those final exhorbitant costs and medical care becomes affordable even without further advance. Throw in more emphasis on prevention and mitigation rather than cure and the financial problems diminish even more.

The problem is political and cultural, not economic.

[americanbychoice2]

You are overlooking a few minor details.
Of course technology has been a boom for us. Productivity has risen to an all time high. It will continue.
You are forgetting that we all pre-pay our medical costs in our retirement years already. it is a vicious cycle. On one hand we want lower drug prices. However, R&D is not cheap. If we don't allow companies to make a reasonable profit, where is the incentive to pay for R&D? I invest in quite a few Drug companies, believe me if they just greedy as so often portrayed, I would make a lot more money from their profitability.
Social systems are not funded by technology, but with cash.

Mitigation? =Tort reform, I am with you on that one.

Ther is one way to decrease medical costs. Mandate that every one has to have medical coverage. One thing that would do is lower premiums, since we would have the young, healthy individuals come into the pool and equalize our risk factors in medical coverage. At the present, a system that is totally out of balance since the young, healthy people refuse coverage and then blame the government for the lack of it.
Let them live in Europe where they are made to apy a percentage of their income as premiums. Contrary to leftist belief, there is no free health care anywhere on the globe.