QotD: Costs of Healthcare

I hate sentences that start "the basic problem is . . .", but in health care, the problem is pretty basic, which is that we all want top of the line health care, regardless of cost, but we don't actually want to pay for it. Of course, we do pay for it . . . through tax dollars, foregone salary, and so forth . . . but that's largely invisible. When we're presented with the whacking great sums that it costs to provide that insurance, we screech in pain. Just ask anyone who's left a corporate job and had to buy their own health insurance.

Jane Galt, "Healthcare, Part II", Asymmetrical Information, 2006-03-26