[Morrigoon]

The health coverage thing is always a two-edged sword for me. On one hand, wouldn't it be great if I never had to worry about the cost of a procedure and could just go to the doctor whenever. On the other hand - HMOs suck bad enough, how much worse would it be if the government were in charge? When you have politicians deciding how much doctors make, how on earth can you expect us to get decent care.

I think the compromise would perhaps be that the government provide a certain minimal level of coverage (much like medicare) to everyone, and set up an arrangement where individual insurers compete for the business of improvements upon that coverage. There would need to be a financial incentive of some type for doctors who exclusively (or a minimum percentage that comprises the majority of their patient pool) serve the government-insured. But then doctors who wish to could accept people with increased coverage (in other words, the government plan would be like an HMO, and privately insurance would be the upgrade to a PPO).

The whole thing still scares me.