What's the outlook for health care costs in the years ahead?

What do you mean when you say "inject real competition into the private sector?" If you think this is needed for the healthcare industry, do you think we need this in every industry? How will the public insurance option increase competition? Will they do things more efficiently, or simply charge less? What are the effects of simply charging less?

As the system is set up now the cost of treating the 57 million or so uninsured when they go to the hospital is paid for by hospitals and passed on to the rest of us through higher prices to insurance carriers who then whallop the insured to cover it.

In a perfect world the government could step in, provide coverage for those who are uninsurable, or cannot afford insurance. Sure enough, medical costs might go down as insurance companys save money by the general lowering of hospital and doctors care.

But it's just an illusion. All the savings, plus the cost excesses inherent in any undertaking by beaurocracy will be higher, albeit somewhat hidden in the general budget.

Net result? total costs will rise to the stratosphere while care will ultimately suffer as the next crisis will be along shortly after that. By that I'm suggesting that the brightest people will no longer pursue a career in medicine since they won't want to be socialized.

I know our health system needs repair I just wish there was a better way.

Mass, tried universal health insurance, most middle income peoples that could use it just couldn't afford it. At this point the costs of health care in this country have gotten plain ridicules, it cost $15,000 to have a baby in a hospital with a normal delivery and a two day stay. What a joke. The main reason for this situation is laws passed by your governments both State and Federal that infuse large amounts of money into the system and give near monopoly status to hospitals and drug companies. Ever wonder why there are lots of abortion clinics and no birthing clinics? Anyway I see the system crashing under its own weight in the next ten years. Only hope is to start a parallel system run by the government much like education. Private care and public care. The public system would compete with the private system and help bring down the costs of the private system. The thinking behind everyone paying for public schools even if you are wealthy and send your kids to a private school is that everyone benefits from a well educated population. The same goes for health care, we all benefit from a healthy work force. The current VA hospital system could be a nucleus for the start of the public system.

I just had a baby with a normal delivery and a two day stay with no complications. The base cost was $17,000 but the total cost has now surpassed $35,000 with all the extra bills that keep coming.

The problem with health care is that every person that walks in the room wants thier piece of the pie and the individual isn't paying for it. The doctor doesn't work for the hospital so he bills you and bills you for equipment. The hospital bills you and bills you for the equipment they put in the room that the doctor didn't use.

THEY BILL YOU $120 FOR ONE GOD DAMNED TYLENOL PILL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There is no justification for the dollar ammount a hospital charge. It is impossible to justify a charge of $2200 for four stitches.

The delivery room was billed at $450 for one day. THE MOTHER AND BABY ROOM MY WIFE WAS TRANSFERED TO COST $1800 PER DAY!!!! It was a glorified hotel room and a terrible one at that. I could have put her in a five star resort hotel and hired a private nurse for that kind of money.

We have come to the point of charging over $30,000 to have a baby because the burden of payment shifted from the individual to the system. We created the opportunity for massive fraud. Every hospital bill is fraudulent just like every major corporation's books are fraudulent. It is what happens when you transfer control to an ever shrinking position of power.

As the mega hospitals grew they cut out competition and costs went up. Treating more patients should cause costs to go down as there is a greater revenue stream.

However just as we saw with Cash for Clunkers if there is money left on the table there will be a massive grab for it. For the most part the people that do the work don't profit from the immense revenue entering into the hospitals. It all goes to the hospital administraion just like every other corrupted institution in the history of man.

Our government is totally corrupted, our medical system is totally corrupted, Wall Street is totally corrupted, and our corporations are totally corrupted. Only a return to individual control can fix this mess. The system is profiting immensely from the supposed recovery, the population is suffering.

It is almost like it is by design. By allowing corruption to destroy the free market system you can replace it with the controlled market system. I'm sure Lazzaro here would love that since he will cement his position in the elite Wall Street world that will hoard all the cash and maybe throw a bone to the starving masses every once and a while.

I couldn't agree with you more.

By the way, why did you choose the name Iridium? Did you kill the dinasaurs?

Whoops....that would be dinosaurs...