Pretty Lady wrote, "That would give individuals the maximum control over how their health is maintained and how their money is spent, giving them incentive to seek out the best care at the lowest prices..."

Healthcare is not a consumer product.

You can shop around for the best price on an iPod -- but how do you "price" x-rays or ambulance calls (especially if you may be incapaciated or out of state)? How do you "price" what types of medicine you must take? If you must take product X because that is literally the only medicine that will keep you from dying -- can you really say you have any choice as a consumer?

If I have a stroke -- do I have any "choice" on where or when I will have that illness? Can I plan to get sick near the cheapest hospital I can afford? Nope.

All these plans and savings accounts just don't make any pratical sense.

We don't force people to buy Police Protection coverage -- and then ask the to buy supplemental rape insurance.

The healthcare crisis will not find a workable, pragmatic and intelligent solution until we stop treating health like a widget mass produced in a factory.

You can't really predict when, where or if you will ever be in a fire, a car accident or the victim of violent crime -- therefore it makes no logical sense (IMHO) to create "violent crime savings accounts" or to purchase "Car Jack" insurance for $300 a month with a supplemental "Home Invasion" insurance for an addition $50 a month.

Safety isn't a commodity or a consumer choice

Neither is health. Health can't be regulated by the "free market" because people who are ill can't "choose" their illnesses nor plan the exact date and place they are going to have a stroke or heart attack or diabetes or get shot in a car jacking.

And PS -- Taxes are CHEAPER than paying out of pocket expenses to for-profit hospitals. Just one more time: cheaper!

I just have to re-emphasize what froggy said – the police dept, the fire dept, libraries, and basic education are all tax-payer supported and work pretty darn good!

I just cannot believe that anti-healthcare advocates can’t do simple math!

How much is taken out of your paycheck to pay for 24hr police and fire access? For putting your kids through high school? For driving on a highway systems that stretches across the entire US?

Now compare this to paying AT LEAST $300 a month just in premiums for health insurance!

Now add on the co-pays!

Now tack on the ADDITIONAL bills the hospitals send you because the insurance didn’t cover that procedure or didn’t pay it in full (I don’t think any insurance pays any procedure in full. Ever.)

Don’t forget all those prescriptions. My wife recently had a throat infection. Total cost of three prescriptions WITH insurance? $79.00!

How in God’s name is private insurance “cheaper” than simply paying an extra 5, 10, or 20 bucks in taxes????

And let’s clear one thing up right now: The only thing that changes under single payer insurance is that the doctors send the bill to the government and not to you.

That’s it.

So instead of outright denying a woman with breast cancer chemotherapy (as they currently do if they are uninsured) or sending an insured woman a bill for $50,000 that will never get paid – the bill goes to the government. Kind of like how police detective investigating a rape don’t send the bill to the rape victim. A woman that develops breast cancer isn’t a “consumer” but a victim of a terrible illness and should be treated as much. We all should! What if we did, in fact, treat rape victims the exact same way we treat women with breast cancer? Would you like to get the following letter in the mail from the Police Dept?

“Dear Rape Victim:

Thank you for choosing Denver police to investigate your sexual assault. Your police protection insurance provider has been billed and paid $2,176 of your $45,372 bill. The DNA fingerprinting was not covered nor was the additional detective hours required to investigate your case. Please remit to us the outstanding $43,196 with 7 days or else your account will be turned over to our attorneys. Failure to pay your debt within 7 days may jeopardize your credit score and result in garnished wages. Don’t jeopardize your credit by ignoring this bill!

Have a super day!”

Diddlypop wrote "The problem is that if people can get their media for free, then there is no point in paying for it. And as soon as the perception solidifies that it doesn't matter if you steal it, it'll all work out, a cancer forms on the entertainment industry."

But TV used to be broadcast for FREE!

Radio IS broadcast for free now!

No one paid for it. They simply viewed it.

On the Internet no one pays for it. They simply view it.

I'm not understanding how TV could be broadcast to all of America for free in 1984 -- yet, mysteriously, we are all required to pay to view sitcoms that should be free.

If you have a TV antenna -- it's free.

So why is it "not free" now?