Nearly 20% (or about $1 Trillion dollars) per year is spent by the Federal Government on Medicare and Medicaid, this pushes prices up higher than they normally would be. So to some extent, many health care jobs are Government jobs.

If government workers spend money at Goldman Sachs, does that make Goldman Sachs jobs government jobs? Come on!

That's not driving prices up, and it's also protecting the industry from clients who might otherwise not be able to pay

protecting the industry from clients who might otherwise not be able to pay = driving prices up

With such brilliant minds as Al Gore on the Board of Directors, whose sound judgement and intelligence obviously helped steer Apple to World's Most Valuable Company status, Apple will continue to thrive

So you're saying that if those old people went to the hospital for their care, and then stiffed the hospital on their bill cause they couldn't pay or died, then medical care would be cheaper?

That's crap and even if it were true, so what? Would your really want to live in such a country?

t does not make sense to you because you are looking at it in Black and White - but in reality there is a spectrum of people with different incomes, and giving some of these people money to pay for procedures does make prices go up, by simple supply and demand.

I am not saying I would want to live in a country that doesn't give medical care to the poor, but that was not my point. In our system someone is always going to be squeezed out of medical care, because it is a finite resource. If we give it to the poor (like we do) then the middle class can't afford it.

I think we have a sh1tty system. Either completely privatizing it or completely socializing it would be better. I remember when I was a kid doctor visits were very affordable, and not many people had insurance, medicare, etc. Doctors even made house calls.

But I more blame the medical field for this. They almost NEVER can tell you what something will cost, never suggest ways to cut things in a visit to save money, and so on. If I knew I would have to pay back every penny of my last emergency room visit, I would have spent the night in the car in the parking lot on vicodin instead of on a bed on morphine. Is that how we want our medical care to have to work though?

The 2009 CARD Act made it more difficult for credit-card issuers to raise rates and charge fees. New Federal Reserve regulations limited overdraft charges. Then came the 2010 Dodd-Frank law, which included a provision authored by Mr. Durbin that cut the "swipe fees" that debit-card issuers can charge merchants like Wal-Mart to process transactions.

Don't ask what any of this has to do with preventing the next financial crisis. The new rules and laws achieved Washington's goal of cutting bank revenues, by more than $15 billion per year. But it costs money to provide checking services and electronic payment networks, and the political class is now stunned that banks would seek new ways to profitably serve customers.

FortMental,

You're having some serious mental issues over LEB.

What is the republicans' plan?