Something has to change, health care costs have seriously diminished the standard of living for all of us, except maybe the insurance companies, medical institutions and their professionals, and the pharmaceuticle companies.

There's a coming crisis in medicare and instituting a national healthcare system could go a long way to pulling our collective heads out of the sand.

And in pulling our heads out, we have to acknowledge that the well-to- do in society will be called upon to pay for it. From what I've read, the wealthy really do pay most of the taxes. Will it be in the best interest of the country to keep milking the rich?

I'm just throwing these thoughts out in no particular order:

-Means testing for healthcare recipients (again, placing the burden on the rich.)

-Reduce the academic requirement for doctors. Focus their studies on medical science. The current system amounts to a restricion on competition- better to flood the market with doctors.

-Require a co-pay as well as a "healthy" dedcution for services. Allow repayment in flexible installments with interest- according to ability to pay. Come up with a cap or maxium cost per individual/ per year- also based on ability to pay.

-Spend less on research. The human body hasn't changed much in the last 50,000 years and the only "new' diseases I can think of is AIDS and ADHD. Seems like the pharmaceuticle companies invent new disorders just to justify selling drugs. Many of the drugs we have today are simply known drugs that have beneficial side effects which are then repackaged to treat something like "Restless Leg Syndrome". We may have had shorter lives and a poorer quality of life (health wise) but humanity did just fine without Doctors and Surgeons just a few hundred years ago.

- Consolidate MRI and CAT scan services. What we have now is exam clinics on every corner just like Starbucks. They probably recoup their startup cost relatively quickly.

-Loosen FDA drug testing requirements.