Michael Kinsley makes a good point on the new prescription drug program. I'll quote one paragraph here but go read the whole thing…
Thus Bush's only major domestic accomplishment in six years as president has not achieved its intended purpose of cementing the affection of senior citizens for the Republican Party. Many Republicans are sobbing with frustration, too. It is one thing to put aside your principles and spend hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars on the largest expansion of the welfare state since the Great Society if it is going to help you to win elections (so you can pursue your dream of smaller government). It is another to sell your soul and not get anything for it. No one looks more foolish than a failed cynic.
Health care costs in this country are insane. The bill for my four days in the hospital recently came to $30,251.68 and that doesn't yet include doctor fees. I did not have surgery or a lot of special equipment. That was the price tag for just laying in a hospital bed for four days, eating the fabulous cuisine and having intravenous antibiotics pumped into my system. My insurance will cover most of the tab but even my out-of-pocket costs could wreck the lifestyle of some family living near the edge, just barely able to make routine expenses. (I've heard from a number of people who had what I had but who were in a hospital for three or four weeks with it. Imagine what that cost. By the way, I consider myself fully recovered and my doctor seems to concur.)
During the Terri Schiavo controversy last year, there were a lot of folks who were deeply concerned about prolonging the breathing of a total stranger whose life was probably, in any meaningful sense of thinking or communicating, already over. I wonder how many of those people are concerned that every day, out-of-control medical costs are killing people who are much more "alive" than Ms. Schiavo was by the time any of us heard of her.