Some other brief counter-arguments to Ms. Green's piece: Medical expenses are not the number one cause of bankruptcies and the sheer numbers of those are nowhere near the numbers that should be a driving factor for reform, according to analysis I've read, from either BigGovHealth.org, or Heritage.org. These two sites are replete with volumes of research on all aspects of the health care debate. Besides, nothing being proposed for single-payer will change the fact that people go into bankruptcy and, when medical expenses are involved, even if not the primary cause, those costs are still going to have to be paid by someone, and the level of health care expense, to the extent that it is too high, I've adressed above.

Single payer medical care wouldn't recapture any wasted money. To believe that is to deny the clear examples of massive gov't waste in every program, from Medicare to emergency/disaster response to military spending, etc. It's just wishfull, ideological thinking to think a state-run system will economize, except in that it will ration care. Again, let the feds show us how they can save money and reduce costs in the programs they already administer, and not just by paying providers even less of their fair compensation for services.

The bottom line is that 85 percent of us are insured, 90 percent of those are happy with what we get, and best way to reduce the premiums are outlined in above posts, and could be tested in states under our system of federalism which lets states be the laboratories. Unfortunately, what we see is the activist, liberal big gov't forces are part of the problem at the state level because even there, they insist on meddling and mandating with the requirements for health care so that individuals don't really have a choice for getting an economical policy. They have to purchase "boutique" policies forced by liberal do-gooders in gov't that think they know best how to care for everyone's health insurance. No, people are capable of making all kinds of decisions about what is in their best interest in a lot of areas, including their heath insurance, or their own health care dollars.

http://www.biggovhealth.org/
http://www.heritage.org/LeadershipForAmerica/health-care.cfm