Absolutely correct Sally,

Up here it seems that planning is rather short term. Heavens only knows what will happen in another ten years when the baby boomers are a decade older. We can barely keep up now.

Our costs are pretty reasonable for hospital as most are non-profit and many are teaching hospitals. A good deal of funding comes from the priovate sector. In my small town, it was the citizens that purchased our one and only CT scanner 3 years ago for $1.2 M after the gov't said that they would fund its operation and maintenence.

The doctors are raking it in though; as they are paid/visit or proceedure. Thus it is common to have an MD seeing 40-50 patients/day...all for around 5 minutes. They even restrict you bringing only one thing to their attention/office visit so they can rush you through. If you have 2 or more things going on, you have to make an appointment for each one. How greedy is that!
It really is 3rd world health care here sometimes.

Ah well, as they say, it is what it is.

With love, Erika