I have to disagree with you Tasorin. You state that the CNN newscaster lays down the smack, but what he actually does is cleverly avoid the facts laid out by the interviewee.

The guy being interviewed, who I've never heard of, clearly states that the fines they paid were due to mistakes in medicare filings and that the government, thanks to Bill Clinton, considers "ANY MISTAKE IN FILING" to be fruad. With 135,000 pages of medicare rules how easy do you suppose it is to make a mistake when filing a claim?

I'm not taking this guy's side, he may be a sleazeball, but to the point that the CNN guy cleaned his clock, I think that's a wildly inaccurate claim.

As for the healthcare debate in general, we pay more. We pay more for everything. We also have access to everything. How many wealthy people fly to Canada or GB to get that treatment that they just can't get or are on a waiting list for here? NONE.

Hell, Ted Kennedy left MA for FL so fast that it took a couple of days for the media to figure out where he'd gone. Why you ask? Because under MA's socialized healthcare he couldn't pay enough, even though he's like a king there, to get the treatment he needed for his cancer. If he'd not been able to fly to Florida he'd be DEAD.

Now, I'd be the first to argue that we'd be better off without TK, but this just makes my point. We have the best doctors, the best drugs, and the best treatment facilities in this country. I believe that the biggest reason we pay more is because doctors must have malpractice insurance and the premiums are rediculous because of the payouts the insurance companies are forced to make. If we institute some very simple tort reform, loser pays (costs split 30/70 plaintiff/lawyer), then we will see a dramatic decrease in the number of frivolous claims and a sharp reduction in our costs as a result.

You won't see that though because that kind of change would spill over into other aspects of our judicial system and as long as the laws are made by the lawyers, that just won't happen.

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