How would you fix healthcare?
russell: I have had to deal with third world programmers.  I am not particularly interested in entrusting my life to the medical equivalent.  US students are free to go to their med schools but prefer US schools because the quality of the education is so much higher.The US has excellent health care, but there are two problems: availability and price.  If you dont have employer paid insurance, medicare, or excellent health, you are pretty much shut out. The pricing structure is out of whack.  My SO takes a drug that costs $700 per month.  It went generic in February and in October full competition will kick in and it will probably cost $20-30 per month.  Meanwhile we are paying for excessive profits, television ads, and salesmen.  I dont know what the price is in Canada or Mexico, but probably much less.Another example of a completely whacked out pricing system is hospitalization.  Several years back I had a pretty routine routine heart procedure.  The bill from the hospital was $80,000.  The insurance company allowed $20,000 and I only had to pay $2000.  Someone without insurance would have been hit with the whole $80,000.  And then there was the anesthesiologist who didnt participate in the insurance plan and billed me $4,000. Nobody told me about him beforehand, and you don't do much comparison shopping in those circumstances.