Can you save your way out of this one? Health Cost News

http://www.insurancenewsnet.com/article.asp?a=top_news&neID=20080219290.2_a43208d59b901eb5
is a website that includes the significance of the 43% rise in medical costs over the last 5 years, that now average about 20% of use of income in the US.

The article reminds people to stay healthy and that they might reap the benefits of reduced costs because of better health....how long you figure you'll be able to milk that one?

The most frustrating part of the health crisis dialogue is that it does not mention that the greed of companies and providers will not and cannot be solved that looks for an approach to get more Americans insured....insurance isn't covering those increased costs.

Without an approach that looks for cost containment, consumers will be left with what they are doing, the only leverage they have left, opting out of health insurance all together. Instead of addressing the fact that the free market economy is working: Albeit sadly, people leaving the flawed product of insurance behind and waiting for the industry to offer an insurance product that does what it was intended to do which is to provide help in the event of illness by covering the risk of medical expenses through the charging of premiums, we see the trend going to anti-free market forces and strong arming consumers through penalties (such as in MA) or con games such as those marketing "universal health coverage" which is really only another way of marketing a product (INSURANCE) that no longer provides what it was intended to provide (help in paying for needed medical care so that people are not crippled by the COST of illness).

The greed of the health care providers and the insurance companies is bolstered by strong representation and organization in government and politicians who are so far removed from understanding the GAP between cost of care and coverage that they are acting as if having any form of health insurance will address our health care crisis.

If health insurance does not sufficiently help people pay for medical care then health insurance is obsolete. If physicians cannot contain their costs then people will default on their payments. If politicians cannot get off their rich horses and spend some real time in the real world and understand that IT IS NOT THE COST OF THE CHECKUPS that is creating our health care crisis but the COST OF OBTAINING NEEDED MEDICAL CARE, then the consumer will be left with no choice but to continue to do as he/she has begun to do in droves: Leave health insurance behind, pay what they can to providers and declare bankruptcy for the rest.