Today's Wall Street Journal carried a story about small businesses dropping the healthcare coverage they offer employees. The president of one company, a metal fabrication firm in Texas, felt terrible about taking this action, not least because one of her employees is being treated for prostate cancer. This means he still has cancer, still needs treatment, but, thanks to the current economic situation in the United States and the fact that health insurance premiums continue to "rise" (whatever the reasons), this poor fellow now has no way to pay for treatment. This got me to thinking:  Why do health insurance, delivery, and care costs rise, and why are these increases taken for granted as an article of faith?

First, consider that while rising health care costs affect many countries, we are unique in one respect:  In all industrialized countries in the world--except the United States--the situation described above would never arise. In fact, the rest of the civilized world considers such a situation barbaric because it means that the state is willing to allow someone to suffer and/or die because he can't pay for something. That's because the compact between their governments and peoples implicitly assumes and explicitly states that (a) the people agree to cede power and a large part of their income to the state; (b) in return, the state agrees to act in the best interests of all citizens (and, often, non-citizens) by providing for the common defense, education, employment, retirement, delivery of health care, and administration of all of these areas.

Our compact covers all these areas, too, but with one key difference:  The United States is the only country in the world where citizens receive health care based on whether they can pay for it at the time they need it rather than as a right of citizenship and common human decency.

So, the question remains:  Why do these costs rise continuously, annually, and, seemingly, inevitably? I look to you folks to help me find the answer(s). After all, this is a subject that affects everyone in America. I look forward to your posts, especially your explanations. Everybody has strong feelings about the current system, but not everyone can posit an explanation. Even fewer can offer solutions. But, together, we can--indeed, we MUST--figure these things out.