Yeah, well...there were several different single-payer proposals in the mix, but none made it out of committee, because they were "too radical" to pass the House. And once Scott Brown was elected, anything that even remotely smelled like "socialism" (i.e. simpleton socialism, not real socialism) was off the table.

There are no solutions to this problem that don't involve either making consumers aware of how much they're spending on health care (thus aligning economic incentives), or removing the profit-seeking entity from health care altogether. So long as we have consumers who don't know/care what they're paying, medical and insurance companies who have a profit motive, and physicians who have no incentive to consider cost of care, we have an economic recipe for health care hyperinflation.

The "conservative" propaganda machine has thoroughly brainwashed our poorest and most vulnerable people into voting against their own economic self-interests on this issue. I don't know what's going to fix it, but until that day, we'll get "free market solutions" that make health corporations richer and don't do anything to fix the underlying economic incentives that are causing the problems.