Oregon II

I've been thinking about the cost of health care lately and I have been trying to think about the justifications for pharmaceutical companies, doctors, and hospitals charging as much as do. I kind of feel that the trade off is at the expense of those who are ill. I understand that a doctor's education is expensive and the have really stressful jobs but when we allow costs to get out of control we make medical care more out of reach for the lower classes. Isn't there a limit that the government has to set on costs? This would have to also include laws reducing hospital and doctor liability to bring down the cost of malpractice insurance as well. More sinister than hospital cost was the information I found on pharmaceutical companies. According to PBS's The Other War on Drugs website, just as much or more money is spent on marketing/advertising as on research and development. Can this be justified at all? What about better programs to elevate the lower class to the point where they do not need to rely on the state medicaid? I just wish more would have been done to provide better health care for the poor without assuming that trade offs had to be made.