today's headline: Cost Crisis Looming

Most of the media stories on this are short on analysis, just providing scary headlines such as--
***20% of our national wealth will be spent on health care soon (it's 16% now)
***government will spend $13,000 per person per year by 2017 (double current spending)

The main factors include:
*baby boomers are getting older and will need more care just by being older
*as they reach 65, they'll switch from private insurance to Medicare
*care keeps getting more expensive as hi tech treatments are constantly escalating
*cost of prescription meds keeps increasing--but that is not the only problem

The pro-business, pro-free enterprise Wall St Journal features the story prominently, and notes that proposals by Obama and Clinton are small compared to the built-in increases noted by the analysts of the Medicare and Medicaid programs. WSJ notes that the private arm of Medicare tends to cost more than original Medicare http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120399640594392887.html

The give and take from the readers of WSJ is interesting. Some still think we got to go back to no insurance, no regulation, and let the consumers lean on doctors and hospitals to keep costs down. Folks, it's way too late for that.
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2008/02/26/feds-health-spending-to-double-in-a-decade/