Does no one accept responsibility any more?

[Tiberius Pantera]

Originally Posted by nathan_slatter

When it comes to social issues the question always has to go back to this:

Do we band-aid the problem?

OR

Do we fix the problem?

Any sort of "health-plan" the government provides is merely going to be a band-aid. The problem is the exorbitant health care costs -- some of which is un-necessary. I know of local doctors who have delivered babies for nothing, just to help the families. Though the family still had to pay for hospitalization and such.

I work in health care and know that one company that provides medical equipment charges outrageous prices for them -- the problem is that there is no real competition for these prices. A server to run the machines run 30,000 to more than 10 times that amount -- and it is proprietary. You can't run the same software on any other server -- even if the same operating system is on it. Actually you can but if you want support (which is also around 1000 an hour, conservatively) you have to leave it on a Dell server that this company provides -- a server that would cost, at the most, 3000 to purchase. It is an essential monopoly.

So the answer isn't better health care plans provided by a government that has a hard time doing anything correctly -- especially this administration -- rather, the answer is to find out why health care is so costly and work to alleviate those things. Broaden the choices one has available by giving the people more choices. Force these companies to work in competition -- no price fixing. And enforce these things. Take away their shield of protection found behind the walls of corporatism and force them to appease the public or meet their demise.

this is a brilliant post.