^Costs have risen because insurance company middlemen have skimmed the system while colluding to set prices.^

There is no evidence of this. None. It is as illegal for insurance companies to "collude" on prices as it is for anyone else. State insurance commissions regulate rates, and someone with the brains of a chipmunk might have asked why all the sudden outrage on Anthem right now when they have been negotiating that price increase with California Department of Insurance since last November. Do Obama's adoring fans enjoy being taken for fools?

^Ask yourself this: Why does the United States have the highest per-capita medical spending of any industrial democracy? All the other ones have single payer systems but they pay less and cover everyone.^

The short answer for this is that we pay more for medical care than other industrial democracies because we buy more medical care than they do. Has anyone done similar "per capita" spending comparisons on things other than medical care? Cars? Housing? Computers? Food?

^But that point is just how we got to these extremely high costs, not how to deal with them NOW.^

I believe I explained that one reason we got to these high costs was by subsidizing the system and wrecking the market forces. You will not reduce costs by increasing the subsidies. How about going the other way for a change?

^Our system is the best in the world if you are wealthy. If you are middle class and severely sick this is one of the worst in the world.^

This is crap. When pressed on this, the only thing socialists can come up with is life expectancy, and the WHO study. Even then, it's a cinch they never read the WHO study in full.

^You made a comment a couple posts ago about what insurance exists for. INSURANCE EXISTS TO PROTECT FINANCIAL SECURITY. Even non catastrophic health care costs can push middle class people into bankruptcy, and it does every day!^

Insurance that covers everything is not insurance. I see you didn't pay attention.

^If we had a single payer system everyone would be covered and the costs would be spread out because everyone would pay a smaller amount out of their taxes.^

If we had a "single payer" system for three hundred million people, it would collapse. For God's sake THINK. Are medical costs going down in Canada? See below. In constant dollars, they were spending $1700 per capita in 1975, and $4000 now. Obviously single-payer is not a cure-all for cost increases. THINK! Is Medicare breaking even? Doctors are bailing out of the program, and hospitals losing money left and right on Medicare payments, and the system is STILL going broke.

(picture no. 201 from the old board's gallery, not restored)