No doubt, the best way to reform medical care in this country is to elect the Samuel Clemens Party--that would be, the "hang them all and start over" party. Come to think of it, it is no doubt the best way to reform the rest of the mess they've created as well.

I was disabled while working for a truly disreputable company about 15 years ago. Because of some illegal maneuvering on their part, I got a $4,000 lifetime settlement, with no future medicals. Luckily, because the courts DID find they were the cause of my illness, they have to provide medical insurance for me as an employee until I am 65. BUT...because I live on disability, I often have to pay for my medications with a credit card. I have managed to pay my monthly payments, but now have credit card debt which is 75% of my annual income! I cannot get help through the pharmaceutical companies because I have insurance. In less than ten years I will lose 2/3 of my income, and my medical insurance. I have a ten year old car and I don't own a home. I am terrified!! If it weren't for the medical bills, I believe I could make it. As it is, the choice seems to be homelessness or suicide. Only big companies can file bankruptcy now. I guess I should have had the foresight to be born rich!

The medical/health care problems in America will never be resolved as long as the Repubs are in control of our government. The Bush/Repub strategy for solving this problem is to tell people to simply loose weight. Were the problem only that simple it would still be very difficult to solve without massive infusions of federal taxpayer dollars to support medical research (which most Americans would be willing to support) at NIH and medical research labs at universities in America.
Once obesity/diabetes and the other top six most expensive medical problems were solved the cures would just be GIVEN to the prescription drug industries who would then just charge so much money for the medications that most people would not be able to afford them. So,in effect,the huge amount of taxpayer dollars spent on medical cures would only benefit the wealthy and therefore would be nothing more than the expenditure of tax dollars to subsidize the health needs of the wealthy.
The Bush/Repubs answer to everything is to reduce big government. "Big Government" is nothing more than a Repub code word for taking many,many services including health care and education away from the average and poor Americans, while at the same time granting huge subsidies to the military/industrial complex,the oil industry,insurance companies,health care companies and now the prescription drug industry as in the case of the Medicare Part D program. This most recent Repub disaster is nothing more than a taxpayer subsidy for the prescription drug industry.

It is interesting to see what people WILL believe when trying to place the blame.

Unfortunately, blaming Bush, and those "evil rich republicans" isn't the answer.

Does anyone here even remotely care why healthcare prices have sky rocketed, or are you more interested in blabbering about how the goverment needs to provide healthcare for the poor?

The problem my friend, is not that the goverment isn't doing something, it is that the goverment IS. You see, although it seems natural to blame people whom are better off, or more inteligent than you, that doesn't always make it right. All the time your wonderful Democrats were paying lip service to you, all they were doing was introducing socialism isn't a capitalist system. The best way to describe America's system today is "half-assed" - and yes, Democrats are the ones who screwed it up the most.

How you ask?
Well, when the goverment was introduced into healthcare, that is what we call a command element. What this did was take away the ability of capitalism to do its job - by not allowing the American people to determine the price they would, and could pay. Instead the goverment simply handed over a blank check and told the big companies to fill in a price. What this did was allowed the companies to jack there prices up to rediculous levels - causing skyrocking insurance prices as well.

This is just an overview of what has happened with our system - but it should give you some idea who is really to blame.

The next thing to discuss is a solution - liberals are now pushing to fully socialize the system - and create a failing system that is seen in such wonderful nations as Canada and much of Europe. The best thing about doing this would be that you would ALWYAS pay for healthcare - but that didn't mean you had to receive good healthcare - or even timely healthcare. A 5 year wait isn't that long, after all!

In the end, we need to step back and realize we need to fight - and fight hard. We need to tell the liberals that we will NOT accept there demented form of economics -which have NEVER and will NEVER work. We need to tell them that everyone in America has the right to equality of oppurtunity - and that equality of income is impossible and will only create economic conditions that drag everyone down to the bottum.