I hear your argument, but to prove what you say is as impossible as that YouTube video someone posted here with the two fellows on a mountaintop, with one asking the other to "prove" that the proposed healthcare reforms would be an improvement. An impossible premise, just as trying to prove that Medicare is actually more expensive than private insurance would be.

What I do know is that income tax rates have been reduced pretty substantially over the last decade, to levels very near an all-time historical low. That's certainly shown up in my yearly tax bills. My Medicare premiums have increased, but roughly at the rate of inflation, the same as Social Security payments which fund the premiums. On the surface, your allegation that government insurance is "always more expensive" is incorrect.

The numbers are almost impossible to gather. You have the population going up, the GDP going down, illegal immigration going up, payments to doctors and hospitals (but not drug companies) going down, etc. No one can prove with any certainty what you allege. Certainly no one posting on this board.

Actually, the Medicare portion of my insurance has gotten cheaper in my household. At the same time, my private, for-profit insurance premiums for secondary insurance have shown the following percentage increases over the last five years...8%, 18%, 4%, 12% and 9%. All rates waay greater than the amounts that my Social Security payments increased in the same period. The privately-provided portion of my healthcare insurance is killing me. It's not yet unaffordable in my household, but there will be a day that if these premium increases continue, it will be! If my private secondary insurance becomes unaffordable and I have to drop it, I'll just join the illegals and unisureds and everyone else on the public dole, and let the rest of you pay for our healthcare.

Here's what we do know about national health expenditures (NHE) from 2007, the latest complete numbers available...

• NHE grew 6.1% to $2.2 trillion in 2007, or $7,421 per person, and accounted for 16.2% of Gross Domestic Product.
• Medicare spending grew 7.2% to $431 billion in 2007, or 19 percent of total NHE.
• Medicaid spending grew 6.4% to $329 billion in 2007, or 15 percent of total NHE.
• Private spending grew 5.8% to $1.2 trillion in 2007, or 54 percent of total NHE.
• Hospital expenditures grew 7.3% in 2007, up from 6.9% in 2006.
• Physician and clinical services expenditures increased 6.5% in 2007, the same rate of growth as in 2006.
• Prescription drug spending increased 4.9% in 2007, a deceleration from the 8.6% growth in 2006.

What I thought was important to note here is that every single expenditure category grew at rates substantially higher than inflation. All those expenditures went to private service providers.

I guess I might ask that if the government is so bad, so inefficient, at providing the insurance to pay these bills, how will adding a profit margin of 15-50% make things cheaper for us?

If you can come up with some real numbers, instead of just general "government is bad" generalizations, let us all know.