In this situation, yes. The cost of healthcare is growing at an unsustainable rate--four times the rate of inflation. And more and more Americans are finding that they either can't afford or don't have health insurance every day. There are varying estimates, but the number may be as many as 40 million. That's almost criminal for a society who wants to consider itself the richest, kindest, fairest and most sophisticated in the world. It looks to me like the government is the only party that has a chance to correct the problem.Well, about 40% of Americans have Medicare as their primary healthcare insurer. Given the complaints here that the proposed healthcare legislation will "change" Medicare, it sounds like those that have it are pretty satisfied with the government-provided and government-administered Medicare insurance. I might also point out that the government provides the primary healthcare insurance for my wife and I at a cost that's about 1/3 of what my secondary insurance company charges me for their secondary coverage. My friends with Veteran's Administration hospitalization and prescription drug insurance seem even happier than the Medicare folks. But then, the government isn't trying to make a profit like the insurance companies operating under the free enterprise system.I hate to point this out to you, but it has been the free enterprise system that's gotten us into this mess. It's the free enterprise system that has proven for years that it is incapable of providing top quality healthcare at a reasonable cost.

I know it's really tough to try to tear the idea that "the free enterprise system is best" from your cold dead hand, but IT HASN'T WORKED. It hasn't worked in much the same way that it didn't work with regard to the mortgage mess that has dropped us all into the worst recession in almost 100 years.

Do I think the free markets are the best economic system over the long haul? Absolutely! But the people who ran the businesses and banks and the government under the free enterprise system for the last 20-30 years have gotten things so screwed up--as the result of their greed and singular self-interest-- that a different approach is needed to stop the bleeding and get the patient off life support. Maybe then we can go back to the free enterprise system with somewhat more knowledge on how to run it the right way.