I hope people focus on prevention so that they can limit their need to go to the doctor.

People should really look into vitamin D deficiency. It's become increasingly apparent that most of the country is deficient. It would be nice if people could prevent illness where possible.

Of course people avoid going to the Doctors office. It's expensive, full of sick people, and often not very helpful. The FIRST they want to know is "how are you going to pay?"

People go to the doctor way too much! Get healthy - lose weight, quit smoking, exercise, eat right. I rarely go to the doctor, healthy as a horse in my 50's. My parents are 81 and 86, and THEY rarely go to the doctor, and have no health problems. Then again, they both exercise (and always have), eat right, have never been overweight, and my dad quit smoking 40 years ago. Sure, sometimes you need a doctor - but not all the time. Most "preventative" care can be done on your own, by simply taking care of yourself, and knowing your body.

I avoid doctors at all cost and only go to a hospital when necessary. All they do is run a big bill and can't even fit a common cold.

all the unemployed don't have health insurance

Many of us at my office are suffering from a common cold. Most of us just take some cold meds from the corner pharmacy and are fine. But there are a few who insist on running to the doctor to be told "you have a cold, go get some cold meds from the corner pharmacy." This is one of the things that runs up health care bills. Toughen up and stop whining to the doctor over every bump, bruise, and sniffle. Doctor visits should be only used for real illnesses that will not clear up on their own after a few days.

Well, I don't go to doctors, and I never will again unless it's an OB/GYN, but it's not because of the cost. It's because my trust was majorly destroyed by the mental health system, my former psychiatrist, and my doctor who actually thought I could stop gaining weight on Lithium. None of those "miracle" drugs did anything, and I was on Lithium the whole time which was hell. I know that even if it's just a physical, they'll ask you about how you've been feeling and sleeping. And after my psychiatric nightmare, I know what those kinds of questions are designed to catch: Are they depressed, bipolar, etc.....and I'm just not comfortable going in anymore. Who knows, the doctor may look at my history, and when they find on not on meds any longer, they may try and put me back on them, or at least interrogate me as to why I've "stopped taking my medication" which is my biggest fear.

Oh, but about the cost, that entire nightmare could've been avoided, the the doctors had just sent us on our way, because there was nothing wrong with me. I mean, I've been off meds for some time and am fine. But instead of letting me go home, they decide to lock me in a room, ask a bunch of weird and scary questions, then I wake up days later in the psych ward. But that's not how they decided to jack up the cost. They did a kidney ultrasound to make sure they hadn't yet damaged mine with Lithium, and a spinal tap to check for meningitis. But when everything came up normal, they still kept me there, and all because they wanted to fill up their wallets. Not to mention the cost of all those awful pills. Never again. My family really took a blow from those money grabbing quacks.

FREE?  How about just not getting hosed would make most people happy.  The latest mantra when you're at the doctor's office is:  You're probably just depressed...would you like an anti-depressant?  Nobody expects it to be "FREE" but let's not accept expensive and useless.

People are going to the Doctor less now because of economic reasons. Once Obamacare has been in effect a few years, (if it is not repealed), people will STILL be going to the Doctor less. Not because of cost, but because of rationing and a severe shortage of Doctors.

Unified / E-Health-Care Records Management by CWH Dubai. Lessen the Costs of Health-Care, and Provide Much More Accuracies in Diagnosis and Triage of Patients and Correct Treatment Plans. Inclusive of All National Pharmacies and Ultimately Globally!

Our Global Networks are Fully Secured in a Specialized Facilities in Verizon Business HIPPA Compliant Facilities for CWH Dubai Technologies International LLC USA/UAE/UK/CN; A Disable Worker Self Taught and Conceptual Designers of 23rd Century Designs and Personal Experiences in American Health-Care as I Have almost Daily Visits to Medical Doctors and Facilities which consumes Most of my Days, thus we now have a Product and Abilities to Employ US Citizens and Take Myself off Disability and Provide Needed Services Directly for God Kingdom and Mankind Equally Distributed across all Ethnic and Economic Lines: CWH Dubai Technologies, International:www.webcwh.co.uk Currently Being Re-Designed Live 03, February 2011 with Updated Materials: Subscription Services for Global Network

A little common sense and civility goes a long way to working out the problems we still have in the healthcare debate. We still have a "healthcare" problem and it needs to be resolved. No need to repeal the law, just make the needed changes and reform the system as required. Take greed and profiteering out of the program, eliminate fraud & waste. Go to the single payer method and/or public option. Put all gov't workers and Congress on the system. On a personal side, stop overusing the system with your sniffles and colds!

More people without insurance equates to more budget minded use of medical services. Sadly this will impact prevention and some will wait until their medical problems are so bad that they must have more costly procedures performed.

This article points out one thing. We don't have a healthcare system in this country we have a for profit health business system.

These people only care about how the numbers are down.

And for all you anti-socialism people, the business of healthcare would collapse immediately if the social health programs like medicare and medicaid were eliminated.

Bryan, Bryan The U.S. had a vibrant health care industry long before ANY Government-run social program was started. The profit motive is a healthy incentive to get people to excel. History has no example of any other motive having such widespread, prolonged success.