Perhaps there's a compromise that can be made, a middleground meeting of the two systems that's based on how best to meet the needs of the people rather than on political ideology or economic dogma. Healthcare companies need to make a profit to survive, but the healthcare system as a whole does not. True, we can't break the bank on an annual basis, but the ultimate ROI in healthcare is in terms of a healthy public, not in dollars saved.

This sounds reasonable and sensible, but in fact, finding a compromise between government ownership and control of a system and a free market based on individual choices on the part of the customers and the providers is a lot like trying to find the healthiest mix of cyanide and milk.

In the United States we are already operating under a system that is neither fish nor fowl, a mix of private medical care and the massive socialized systems of Medicare and other state-operated systems. This is why we are having problems now. The cost/benefit feedback that keeps prices reasonable under a market system was short-circuited. A graph of the cost of medical expenses in America, slowly rising steadily over time, took a sharp bend upwards when Medicare was created, and no one who knows anything about how markets work was surprised.

In addition, besides the government influence, people now expect comprehensive health insurance as a right from their employers. Not car insurance. Not home insurance. Not liability insurance. But health insurance. And not just health insurance for serious illnesses, which is how it used to work, but health insurance that covers damn near everything down to Band-Aids.

The whole point of insurance is to spread large unusual expenses from some people over a whole pile of customers.* The insurance company (this is true for all types of insurance) counts on a lot of people who pay premiums, and don't use more in services than the premiums bring in. This concept fails if ALL expenses are covered.

Try and imagine what your car insurance would cost if it covered car washes, gas tank fills, oil changes, flat tires, minor repairs, and other routine expenses. What would the insurance company have to charge for car insurance to make a profit?

I have no idea how we can back out of this. The idea of medical care as an entitlement, already accepted in full by the elderly, is well on the way to being accepted by the rest of America as well. Liberals would be shocked that I would consider it anything else other than an inalienable human right.

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*No, this isn't the same as socialized medicine. I have a choice about private insurance.