50% of all health care dollars are consumed by 5% of the population.

The top 1% of health care dollar consumers consume 21% of health care dollars (according to a recent analysis by Kaiser Foundation).

This is at heart an economics problem. A basic economics problem.

Scarce resources are valuable and the scarcer they are, the more valuable they become.

The poorer our general level of health becomes, the scarcer this resource becomes, hence the more valuable/more expensive.

Lots of people don't seem to grasp that there is not an infinite supply of health care.

And therefore, it must be rationed. The question is what mix of private market/public market is optimal.

Not: "Everyone can have infinite unlimited health care for no or very low cost."

People continue to confuse "government funded" (i.e. funded by taxpayers) with "free."

People DO NOT want to pay for their own health care. ANY of it.

They have somehow come to believe, or been led to believe, that it should be "free." Or close to "free."

But they don't want to give up their Twinkies. They don't want to exercise. They don't want to stop taking drugs and stop drinking and stop indulging in inherently dangerous activities.

And they certainly don't want any limitation at all on medical care for MawMaw and PawPaw.

They whine because they have a high deductible plan. As if the purpose of insurance is not fundamentally to protect against catastrophic events which would bankrupt you, but rather, it should pay for your ordinary predictable medical care.

They want their auto insurance to cover car maintenance, which it doesn't.