In your well-researched and obviously expert opinion, could you please share which NW health insurance carriers are on the brink of failing in the next couple of years?

The insurance companies are not driving reform. I'd like to see a reliable source stating otherwise. Really, I would.

In reading the meaningless drivel of this thread, I finally found one statement that closely mirrors my own view. This, by alanmikkelsen:

"Until we accept the inevitablity of death in our lives, and adjust our attitudes accordingly, I don't see much change coming, despite all the hope I have......"

It isn't health insurance reform that this country needs. It's a mindset change. People die. It's sometimes terrible, and often frightening. Insurance companies are doing an INCREDIBLE job of keeping costs down.

It's a shame that we think we can sit around eating Twinkies all day long, drinking beer and watching TV, all the while contributing - oh, somewhere in the range of $50-$150/month for a few years of health insurance, and then when (surprise) our hearts begin to fail, we can run crying to the insurance company to fork over $250,000-$400,000 for new ones so we can screw them up, too.

Make basic, preventive care affordable to those who want it. A visit to the general practitioner in the northwest costs $120-$210 on average. Charge people $30/month and let them go to the doctor twice a year for a checkup. If you elect a colonoscopy once a year, you should expect to pay around $600 - roughly one-third of the cost.

The problem with healthcare is that no one knows how much it really costs to get sick. A friend of mine complains that his oral cancer drugs cost him $85 last month (GASP!!!). I showed him that his oral cancer drugs cost his insurance company nearly $17,000 in the same amount of time.

Health insurance is cheap and misused and misunderstood. It's education we need, not reform.