Supplementary - health care

Not sure how the Americans are going to sort out their health care issues. I can see both sides. Government run healthcare = bad. Private only health care = bad. It seems to me that health care costs in the region of $300-$400 a month, for someone young and healthy. (That's as much as buying the average car!). BUT they do have access to the best healthcare in the world - this money drives development of important drugs and treatments; something the NHS can never hope to achieve as we pour more and more tax £s into it with no significant improvement in service quality or efficiency.

Having said that, following the case of the lady in the news over here who developed breast cancer and tried to make a claim on her insurance policy for treatment. The insurance company rescinded her policy because she "didn't disclose health issues when she applied for the policy". The thing they were talking about? Warts on her hands. (Clearly, these don't have anything to do with breast cancer).

Luckily, she contacted her Senator and forced the insurance company to re-instate her policy, and pay for her treatment through the courts which took a couple of months - by which time, however, her cancer had got considerably worse... She has had the treatment though, and is recovering.

So - what to do... Obama's plan is currently suggesting that the Government has its own health care plan, which would compete with the private plans, however the down side of this would be that employers (who mainly provide health care as part of their employee benefits packages) might insist that employees use the Government plan instead, as it would be cheaper for them - thus converting the majority of private insurance plans to a Governement scheme - and effectively nationalising the health care system...

Its a big problem. But not for me.