[jyl]

Hugh, yes I think health care cost is on an unsustainable path in the US. It is not just Medicare. Look at the growth rate of health care costs outside of Medicare. I posted a bit about that above. Employers' health care costs are growing far faster than their other costs, which is not sustainable.

Medicare has some issues that employer-provided healthcare does not, like unfavorable demographics (more people over 65 y/o, and they are living longer). And Medicare doesn't have the option that employers do, which is to simply stop providing health coverage.

But either way, Medicare or private, the current US system is headed for a breakdown. Either the cost of healthcare will go too high, or the availability of healthcare will go too low.