Medical costs are going up for a variety of reasons -- new medical proceedures/medications -- inventing new techniques and drugs cost money and if the inventors aren't rewarded they'll stop (what new drugs have come from countries with government run health care? -- there's no incentive (read profit motive) to do so.)
Most people who use medical care shift the cost to another party to pay -- hence they have no incentive to ration their use. That goes from me with my low/no co-pay to the "immigant worker" (illegal alien) who goes to the emergency room for anything and everything.
Some solutions... Government run health care. Pros: It's free. Cons: It's not free, you pay for it every time you earn a dime, every time you buy a pack of gum, and you pay and pay and pay some more every time you turn around. Also since it's "free" everyone and their brother is at the doctor's office for everything you can think of so if you have to go you're gonna wait. The reason 1/3 of the hospital beds in Detroit and Buffalo and other border cities are full of Canadians is because those people can't wait and have the financial means to come here for treatment (I'll leave it to your imagination to figure out what those that don't have the financial means to do something end up doing). In essence health care is rationed -- first come, first served. That's ok unless you have a life threatening situation. And one more thing to consider if you're partial to this solution -- the best and the brightest tend to go into other fields since medicine doesn't pay very well. Doctors in Canada don't make much money.
A more market oriented solution would be medical savings accounts.
Suppose UPS gave you a medical credit card with a 5000 dollar limit on it and you used it for all your medical expenses, prescriptions, dental, the works. Once the 5k is gone, an insurance policy picks up the rest so when you have open heart surgury, its' all covered. If at the end of the year you haven't used up the full 5 grand you get a check (and just for fun let's issue those checks December 20th) for the difference. Now you have a market incentive to use less health care. Do you really need your teeth cleaned twice a year? Or would you rather have the 95 bucks? Or perhaps find a dentist that will do it for 75.
I realize now that I've strayed off topic... oops.
