Private enterprise has been bilking the public on health issues for decades and continues to do so.

Drugs are typically sold at dozens or hundreds of times their manufacturing costs. Don't quote the old song about profits being used for research. They aren't. Instead, they go to huge stockholder dividends and absurd bonuses for executives.

Another example: Diabetes test strips cost a dollar each retail, but only one cent each to make.

Another example: Hospital administrators, health insurance chief executives, etc, etc, pull down salaries in the tens of millions per year. In some insurance companies, the salaries of the top 1% of the executives are larger than the total salaries of all other employees.

Another example: The greed of the malpractice lawyers has made some specialties impossible to staff in some states. It is not uncommon for malpractice insurance to equal 50% of a physician's income. There are no effective limits on awards by juries. Here, the private enterprising bloodsucking lawyers have effectively put a lawyer in every hospital room.

Private enterprise has failed utterly to make health care affordable. It has had its chance. Perhaps, if responsibility had taken precedence over colossal greed, private enterprise could have saved the day. But it is far too late now.

David F Mayer