Spending to death: How much is living worth?

Thought this was semi-relevant to this forum since high medical costs are often a precursor to BK:

Spending to death: How much is living worth?
Costly new cancer drugs and heart pumps bring wrenching choices

Mark Duncan / Ap
Updated: 7:46 a.m. MT Aug 13, 2006

Dying of lung cancer, Carolyn Hobbs tried a new biotechnology drug that produced an unanticipated side effect: acute sticker shock.

She was waiting for her second treatment in a hospital near Denver less than two years ago, when someone from the business office marched in to warn that her share would cost more than $18,000, since the drug wasn’t insured for her type of cancer.

How to decide?

For rest of article:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14235415/

Yeah, the only two things in this world that are "free" is advice and Air.... and their not really free..........

If you need advice you usually pay for it......

If you need oxygen, you end up paying for it also......

So I guess the only thing really free is your thoughts and feelings........ hopefully and the love of your family..............

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14235415/

As a nurse, I've watched far too many families struggle with how to pay for the most basic of healthcare. Healthcare in America is the best in the world....but only if you can pay for it. The % of those who can't afford to pay for it - even those with good healthcare insurance - is growing every year. In 2004, the Census Bureau reported that 45 million Americans lacked health insurance in 2003, up by 1.4 million from 2002 and 5.2 million from 2000 (from http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=173900)

The latest gambit? Now employers are experimenting with outsourcing some medical and surgical care to India and Mexico to reduce their insurance costs - http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-outsource30jul30,0,2330630.story?coll=la-home-headlines . I'm terrified to think what the next ten years will be like as the crush of baby boomers hits the healthcare system hard in our aging years. I fear we are going to crush it beyond saving.