What really irks me about the situation, besides the obvious fact that the US health system is broken, and needs major overhaul, is the attitude of the defenders of the current system and their arguments for "improving" it.

From reading WSJ editorials, always a good barometer of the Neanderthal Right-- (i.e. Bush apologists)-- the current regime's attitude is that individuals are responsible for their own health, bad or good.   Corollaries of this:

1) They can change their behavior to cut their health bills.

2) If you give them financial incentive to do so, they will (hence Bush's wonderful new idea, the "Health Savings Accounts" which reward you for not spending on your own health.)

3) If you don't try to cut your own health expenses, by cutting treatments or drugs, you should pay more.

As if people have a choice on dialysis, cancer treatment, degenerative spine disease, etc--and enjoy going to the doctor--so do it needlessly. It's a nice day. I think I'll go have a colonoscopy.

Obviously it is reasonable to reward people for healthy behavior, like quitting smoking, or not smoking to begin with. But once a person has need for medical attention, it's despicable to give that person incentive to skimp on his or her own health care--to not seek needed medical attention, which is exactly how the current system is geared. Bush supporters want to increase the incentives to not seek medical attention since they claim that much medical attention is discretionary-- which could only be the view of somebody who's never had a major health problem.

The US health system as it stands is only meant to serve the healthy. Anybody else is up a creek---and sold down the river.