BobF
The problem with subsidies is that they are inflationary.  Good or bad, healthcare providers work by the same principles as any other business.  When you make tons of new money available to pay for their products & services, there is nothings to hold down costs.
 
Insurance costs aren't higher because insurance companies are building greater margins.  Insurance costs are higher because the insurance dollars collected have to pay more to providers that are charging more.
 
In many cases, insurance companies are simply paid by self-insurers to administer/manage the process less expensively and with greater levels compliance than hiring specialized staff.
 
Just like anything else the government makes money easy for, price inflation follows.  Education anyone?
 
The ACA guaranteed payment on behalf of millions of new "customers" with zero on the cost control side.
 
There are options, but handing an industry a blank check to be paid by taxpayers and government borrowing isn't the answer.

Mosvalve
Keeping the government establishment out of our lives should continue to be the goal. I think we are fully capable of taking care of our selves.

drewfx1

Mosvalve
Keeping the government establishment out of our lives should continue to be the goal. I think we are fully capable of taking care of our selves.

The problem with the government not being involved is that health care is not something where free market capitalism applies the way it does elsewhere. 
 
The reason is that if you have something like appendicitis you can't really just choose not to get treatment if it's too expensive. And choosing the cheaper treatment for a medical condition is not a good option when one's life might depend on that treatment. And you likely don't want insurance companies, whose primary motivation is their own profit margin, making those kinds of decisions for you either. 
 
Market forces are just severely limited when it comes to health care, and without regulation that leaves us in a bad situation. Free market economics only work in a market that's actually free.

Beepster
I am Canadian and although not perfect our healthcare system is one of our most cherished institutions.
 
Ever since I was a kid I have hoped and wished that someday Americans could have free access to at least basic healthcare.
 
Surviving an illness vs. going completely bankrupt is an inhuman prospect.
 
Not only that... universal health care, when implemented correctly, saves a ridiculous amounts of money by removing the useless middle men AND is crucial to a healthy economy. People who can get preventive medicine BEFORE an illness becomes dire are more productive (not to mention the savings on emergency care) AND have, overall, more disposable income to put back into the most fluid parts of the economy (eg: food, clothes, shelter, consumer goods as opposed to it funnelling directly to the top by way of huge insurance companies and possible sucked right out of the country to foreign investors bank accounts).
 
Now look what you guys done did.
 
You made me go politiderp.
 
I'm out.
 
Peace.

sharke
It's funny though, despite the "superior" health care systems of other countries, the US has one of the best cancer survival rates (as an example). It has a better survival rate than Europe or Canada. And the main reason for this is that the quality of care and treatment really is better. 
 
I have experience of both the British and US health care systems having grown up in the UK and lived almost a third of my life in the US. I get that health care in the US is too expensive, but I don't see the solution as socialized health care. I appreciate what a life line it is for many people, but there are pros and cons. I had the opportunity to see these up close about 7 years ago when I was diagnosed with skin cancer here in New York and was uninsured. A very frightening prospect to be sure, and naturally my first thought was to have the required surgery done back home on the NHS. The specialist at NYU told me that because of the state of my melanoma, it was very important to have the surgery done as soon as possible, definitely no longer than 6 weeks because at that point it stood a good chance of getting into my lymph system, reducing my chance of survival drastically. As it was they said I had a 95% chance of survival if I had the surgery done now. Making inquiries through a couple of channels in the UK I was told that I was likely to go on a waiting list for the NHS surgery, and although they couldn't give me a definite timeline, to my horror found that there was a possibility I could wait 11-12 weeks. I could not take that risk and so I bit the bullet and chose to pay for the surgery in NYC out of pocket. I'll never forget when I asked the specialist at NYU how soon I could have the op. His answer was "when are you next free?" And the standard of care I had in both Bellevue and NYU was, I have to admit, better than anything I'd experienced back home. 
 
What also surprised me was how flexible they were with the price. Right off the bat, the surgeon slashed a couple of thousand of his fee when I told him I was paying out of pocket. I was also offered a payment plan and was told not to worry, I could pay it back at my own pace. As it happened I had the cash, and it was a big hit (around $12,000 for all the care I got) but I didn't regret it one bit. People spend more than that on a car. I spent it to continue living my life. 
 
What people don't realize is that one of the reasons why health care is so expensive in the US is because the US spends more than anyone else on research into new medical technology and drugs. There is so much medical innovation out of this country, and other countries benefit from it enormously. With all due respect to the Canadian system, just how much in new medical innovation is coming out of there, compared to the US? Ditto Europe. Many European countries which consider themselves "superior" to the US are benefiting from so much US medical innovation you wonder just how good their socialized health care systems would be if they had to rely solely on technology developed natively. 
 
So yeah, I get it, health care in the US is too expensive and needs to be more accessible. I just think there are far better ways of doing that than going down the path of full socialization, which would lead to less money spent on R&D and losing a major source of the world's medical innovation. Insurance reform is needed. The government interferes way too much in the form of mandates and regulations which severely restrict consumer choice and thus lead to less competition and higher prices. 
 
The only time I have had medical treatment in the US and skipped paying for it was some years ago (also uninsured) when I went to the emergency room with strep throat. I had to wait 3 hours in a horrific waiting room full of drug addicts and other assorted loons, and in the end the doctor saw me for 5 minutes in which he did a quick test and injected me with penicillin. The bill shocked me. It was $250 for the test and the shot (which I thought was fair) plus a $750 surcharge for the pleasure of sitting in the emergency waiting room. I threw the thing in the trash and never heard from them again. 

Beepster
hmm...
 
Based on some of the comments in this thread it almost sounds like the United States is ready for a proper universal healthcare system... like the ones just about every other civilized first world country offers it's citizens.
 
...
 
*crickets*

eph221

BobF
The problem with subsidies is that they are inflationary.  Good or bad, healthcare providers work by the same principles as any other business.  When you make tons of new money available to pay for their products & services, there is nothings to hold down costs.
 
Insurance costs aren't higher because insurance companies are building greater margins.  Insurance costs are higher because the insurance dollars collected have to pay more to providers that are charging more.
 
In many cases, insurance companies are simply paid by self-insurers to administer/manage the process less expensively and with greater levels compliance than hiring specialized staff.
 
Just like anything else the government makes money easy for, price inflation follows.  Education anyone?
 
The ACA guaranteed payment on behalf of millions of new "customers" with zero on the cost control side.
 
There are options, but handing an industry a blank check to be paid by taxpayers and government borrowing isn't the answer.

 
This is a common mispconception about healthcare.  It's not fungible and therefore isn't inflationary.  Keeping oneself healthy is something that happens only when we're sick.  Each person will have a different relationship to that, therefore it's not fungible and doesn't behave like a normal market.  It's the competition between insurance companies that we're after at this point, not necessarily competition between doctors.  That market behaves like any other profession.