[Dean]

I am not going to get caught up in the majority of this debate, but will make a few comments.

1. For the most part, you only really appreciate the worth of something if you had to pay for it in some direct tangible manner. Routing your hard earned money through a bureaucracy in the form of taxes and the government in a single payer system just obfuscates you away from it. Employer paid does much the same thing only worse in some respects.

2. Paying Cobra and trying to buy your own health care insurance is a true eye opener.

3. Interstate competition and the centralization of regulation instead of 50 states making their own rules would probably help, not hurt.

4. Preexisting conditions suck for everyone involved, but have to be covered and the risk spread. The only way to eliminate them is have magical coverage for all from birth to death at which point we are back to #1...