David - I'm going to research universal health coverage for my follow-up piece. I know it seems like a much better way to do things but I am sure there are also issues. For now I will point out that if the US were to have univeral health care the payment for services would still need to be administered and this would likely be done by insurance companies. That is how government programs such as Medicare and Medicaid are mainly administered. And, even those programs have cost controls in place.