It should not be an either/or.

Access at a reasonable cost is not out there for so many Americans. Throw in a pre-existing and there might be no access at all.

Why does everybody think it has to be either/or? We need middle ground. A solution that provides access to decent coverage at a reasonable cost. Something we could buy into. (both literally and figuratively)

We let the present system get away from us. Are we now at the point of no return?

Prescription cards for convenience. Yeah, that was great. A Trojan Horse that hid the real cost of the drugs as they skyrocketed.

I remember saving receipts in a shoebox and sending them in to my insurance company for reimbursement. I knew what the cost was. But then, somewhere in the early 90's, or maybe late 80's, suddenly everybody at work wanted that card with that co-pay. A few bucks at the pharmacy and we could be on our way. No pesky shoeboxes.

That drug card turned out to be a Trojan Horse.

For the sake of convenience, we as consumers of health care pulled that wooden horse inside the walls. The insane cost of prescription drugs has slaughtered us in our sleep. Just like in the story when those soldiers climbed down out of their hiding place inside that horse and slaughtered the Trojans. It was an easy slaughter. They were sleeping off the partying they had been doing because they thought they had won the war. They thought that wooden horse was a gift from the enemy. Just like people thought that prescription card was so wonderful.

So Big Phama could hide those cost hikes from the consumer. And hide them and hike them they did. We all know pipelines are not the whole picture.

And now, I really must state the obvious......Paper-pushers in cubicles at insurance companies spend their days trying real hard to prescribe drugs and limit procedures. And they often succeed. Gee. With all that experience, should a national plan arise, maybe they could transfer right on over to a government job.

And speaking of government jobs. And speaking of taxes. Isn't that our tax money that provides that health care for life that comes with a government job.

I know it is all a big mess. A huge ugly mess. But either/or is not the answer.

And I am glad to see some real experiences showing up in this thread.

Boomer