>>>>>>>Seven years ago I saved about $3000 on dental work. How? I forked out $2800 for three airplane tickets to Belgrade, paid a private dentist here about $800 for about ten hours of work, and that was it. After seven years, whatever the guy did still holds fine, so it wasn't shoddy or with lower quality. And most of the stuff he was using was imported, so it's not as if he was using cheaper local substitutes.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>And your point is.....?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>That even without any semblance of health system involved (we just walked into a shop, got the work done and paid the man), it was so much cheaper than in the US. And the guy wasn't short on fancy machinery, either.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>So something's wrong in the case of the US health industry. The market doesn't work - there seems to be a supply side dictatorship of some kind, or extortion, call it what you want. The outrageous pricing persists, and I can't find a plausible explanation for it.
>>>>>
>>>>>Greed is a plausible explanation.
>>>>
>>>>It isn't. The insurances everywhere else are just as greedy, yet it's only in the US that they get away with so much (of your cash). It's something deeper in the system that allows the greed to reach this far, unchecked.
>>>
>>>The health insurance industry in the US has incredibly deep pockets from decades of fleecing the American public. That allows them to purchase politicians at will. It has taken until now, however, for them to purchase enough of the government at one time to be able to extort the American people with complete support of, and enforced by, the US federal government. With no price control whatsoever! Organized crime never had it so good!
>>
>>It amazes me a little how much the-sky-is-falling is going on. We all agree, or at least I think we should, that the current system is a mess. Let's try something different and find out.
>
>It amazes me how much you will ignore while trying to support the Messiah.
>
>OK. Let's try something different.
>
>Let's kill half the people in the US and see if that fixes the healthcare system.
>
>Or, let's invade Indonesia!
>
>Or, lets name ever other child born in the United States Lester for the next 3.2 years.
>
>Those are different.

Now you're being silly.

Trust me, I would have supported this legislation if it had passed under Bush. It is long overdue. Did you know that every U.S. President since Woodrow Wilson tried and failed to enact health care reform? Some with more effort than others, obviously, but every single one of them wanted to do it.