[scaeagles]

(To EM: ) They probably aren't. One difference is that companies frequently (at least this is the case with both the school my wife teaches at and the very large corporation I work for) shop the market for better deals among the health insurance companies. I can also opt out if I choose.

I do not claim that this is a perfect system. I don't think there is a perfect system. Knowing the propensity for government to mess things up and have cost overruns in the hundreds of billions of dollars even on the comparitively small prescription drug program, I hesitate to want them to have an opportunity to control my health care costs.

(To ISM: )
How does one fund the expenses of the federal government? Not an easy task. I realize it is a necessary evil, but the spending is so horribly out of control on things that the federal government was never designed to handle or manage that I cannot help but think that the simple answer is that the feds should spend less. I'm sure you are familiar with baseline budgeting, which allows an increase of 5% on a budget item to be construed as a cut because there is a mandate from the Carter years that budget items go up 10% every year regardless of if the money is needed there. I wish I could have some form of mandate to increase my budget every year by 10%. Don't think it's going to happen. I have to be responsible and make tough choices with my spending, as does everyone....except the federal government.