Actually, just expanding Medicare - not Medicaid - would have gone a long way toward fixing our problem... That's pretty much what our competitors have done and getting better health care outcomes on half as much $$$...

Too bad that we have such a broken Congress (especially the House) or this common sense approach would have, at the very least, entered into the conversation/debate... We need to have that discussion before people will come around to seein' that it's the only way to fix our serious problems with health care... Free market isn't a fix... It's the problem... And it is corrupt and immoral... $10 aspirins just don't cut if, folks...

Ya' see, the way Medicare works is that if the hospital charges $10 for the aspirin then Medicare says, "No thank, Mr. Hospital... We'll pay $1" and that's the end of it...

Medicaid, BTW, is for income eligible people... A large chunk of the Medicaid budget goes to paying for nursing home care for folks who have already sold off their assets and have no other resources left to pay for their care...

B~