There are too many interest groups that are thriving in the present US health care system for any major changes to occur soon. I have friends who are doctors who have told me that if it were not for the chronically ill they would not be in business. They also told me that almost all of the chronically ill are or were smokers and/or drinkers or obese or all all of these. Most of these chronically ill use a multitude of prescription drugs, enriching both the drug companies and the docs who prescribe them. That's a pretty powerful bunch, who donate lots of money to politicians.

It might be remotely possible for the government to become the insurer of last resort, which would underwrite major med policies for the uninsurable. That would remove a major impediment to getting insurance. The first step is to have a system to prevent people from going into bankruptcy due to their medical problems. A national major med system could do that, and might not be politically unpalatable to the interest groups. I would like a system where the out of pocket max is 5% of your adjusted gross income. That would include insurance premiums.

However, I don't see the federal government doing much of anything. So the states will end up doing various experiments, which is probably a good thing in our diverse country.

BTW, all that stuff about the uninsured is mostly a red herring. Most of the uninsured are young and fairly healthy, and by insuring them the average cost of insurance per capita would drop. Most attempts to do that under the guise of "community pricing" have failed and rightly so.

Black women get breast cancer more frequently than white women for the same reason that black children get rickets more than white children. They are more likely to be vitamin D deficient. Black skin is highly protective against the sun, but it also protects against vitamin D synthesis. Most internal cancers are far more prevalent north of the Mason-Dixon Line than south of it for the same reason. The use of sunblock is also a major cause of internal cancers. My wife and I threw away sunblock years ago and now we have lovely dark tans, and enough vitamin D to prevent cancer. The real cause of skin cancer is the ingestion of omega-6 fatty acids, which our ancestors did not eat.

I took off many years ago from Prescott Arizona in my single engine Mooney. There was a thunderstorm over mountains about 10 miles away, but at the airport it was bright and sunny. I was doing a downwind departure so as we flew parallel to the runway the plane started descending rapidly, even with full power on. Prescott had a flight service station at the time and the guy on duty saw me descending at a high angle of attack. He courteously waited until we started ascending again to call me on the radio and dryly note that I looked like I might have been having a little trouble. Downbursts are pretty serious stuff and can turn into severe wind shear as they fan out on the ground.

My wife and I took our mountain bikes around the city greenbelt a hour ago. It's a lovely ride around the edge of the Snake River, which runs right through town. We rode about 8 miles at a brisk pace. The trail is also used by in-line skaters, walkers, and joggers. We saw a number of rather large children being pushed in strollers, some of them so large they really didn't fit. One daughter, who could hike many miles by the time she was three, is raising her two boys the same way. The four year old can hike any distance, and the 19 month old is getting close. He will be ready to hike for four or five miles by the time he is two. Children should be expected to be able to keep up with their parents on long hikes between two and three. Both our daughters, who are in their 30's, are slender and strong and eat like horses. They enjoy kicking their parents butts when we hike with them.

Start 'em early and they will be fit (and thin) for life.