Medical assistance is a mess in this country. They make promises, and break them. They turn their backs on the people they're supposed to help. And, they do nothing to ensure people who need medical assistance can access medical care privately when they're denied aid. It's just too expensive!

There's got to be a solution--a good, workable solution--to this crisis, and it's the responsibility of our representatives to find it. Too bad they're too busy rubbing elbows with those who profit at the expense of this nation's budget and the health of its people to bother.

Oust out the incumbents who keep throwwing up road-blocks to support their wealthy campaign donors, so all Americans can enjoy better health!

This is an issue that is of paramount concern to the nation's senior citizens and, to the economy.

Have you ever thought about the millions of people that work in the medical insurance business ?
Do you think they're really providing you a necessary service?
Think again. Why pay all of these people unnecessarily?
Why not pay medical providers directly?

PROBLEM:
Government and insurance companies set up a system with themselves as middlemen, resulting in:
[X] skyrocketing costs;
[X] increasing medical insurance premiums;
[X] increasing malpractice insurance for health providers;
[X] increased taxes;
[X] institutionalized medical fraud;
[X] proliferation of fraud, and ridiculously high, multi-million dollar judgements (making the ambulence chasing lawyers rich mostly);
[X] an over-complicated system, confused by too many parties with conflicts of interest;
[X] insurance companies making medical decisions instead of your doctors;
[X] medical care quality becoming increasingly unreliable and expensive;
[X] complicated billing
[X] ALL attempts to control costs have failed, since government or insurance companies are the guarantors of final payment.

SOLUTION:
Direct pay medcial FUND PLAN:
(1) administered by the healthcare providers themselves,
(2) that eliminates all reliance on either the government or insurance companies (middlemen) between health providers and patients,
(3) and eliminates insurance company bean-counters from making medical decisions;
(4) will help control costs, since government and insurance companies are not the guarantors of final payment,
(5) simplified billing
(6) will reduce fraud because there will no longer be an ignorant and indifferent middleman that doesn't care about fraud, and merely raise insurance premiums or raise taxes;

CONCLUSION:
(1) Get rid of the middlemen (government and insurance companies).
(2) People pay directly into a medical fund that must be managed by the medical providers themselves, by people with medical knowledge and backgrounds (instead of being hired away by an insurance company to validate services and costs).
(3) It won't solve everything, but it would be a big step in the right direction. What we're doing now isn't working.

I have group medical insurance at the moment through an employer, and it is expensive already, but after checking around the other day, and the costs per month (just for me: age 48) were ridiculous. Most offered what I have now for about $600 per month. The cheapest was about $300 per month with $7500 deductible and riders. Ouch! It would be better to just self insure; open an account, start with as much as possible, and then put $250 per month into that personal account. And, invest portions of it into CDs and other interest bearing instruments. In five years, it would grow to more than $30K (over $45K in 10 years) provided we don't have a recession or worse soon. Then, if an illness occurs, the money will be there. Medical Insurance companies are about to price themselves right out of business, because few will be able to afford it, and those that can, should just self insure. That's what's happening anyway already. Many self insure or go without.

Ofcourse, that type of reform or any other type of common-sense, logical, no-brainer, responsible reform is impossible until voters decide to vote out (or recall) all irresponsible incumbents, repeatedly, until they get the message, and start behaving responsibly too.

DavidW, let's not forget the cost. The Pres. sold the Medicare Rx. drug plan at a cost of under 400 billion. Now the President's people say it will cost taxpayers 1.2 Trillion, and some economists are estimating closer to 2 trillion.

This is going to have the effect of pressuring younger workers into thinking they can't afford older retirees and non-working elderly. This is an example of how the class warfare is perpetuated in this country.

By writing the law so as to allow pharmaceuticals to dictate to the government what their products will cost instead of forcing pharmaceuticals to compete for lower pricing, we have seen the cost of the program triple for taxpayers. And profits for the pharmaceuticals have reached obscene levels through a transfer of taxpayer dollars directly into their accounts.