Am I part of the problem?

See the following article in the Washington Post (you may have to "sign in" to view it, but it's free) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/09/AR2009010902296.html?hpid%3Dopinionsbox1&sub=AR

This guy is arguing that health care costs in the United States as well as elsewhere will continue to rise because of medical advances. This is undoubtedly true, but I'm not sure it's a bad thing. (What spending should have a higher priority than health? War?) He doesn't directly address the differential among the industrialized countries on this matter, however. Why is it that Germans, for example, are getting very good health care for half of what we spend?

Click around. In a related article it is stated that knee replacements are 90% more common in the US (per capita) than in other industrialized nations. I have no idea whether this is true or not, and I'm not even sure it's a bad thing. This surgery is freely available in the UK, to my own certain knowledge, with no more "gatekeeping" than a few months' waiting period, so if the English and the Scots and the Welsh are not having knees replaced at as great a rate as Americans are I'm not sure why not. Maybe more people in the UK should avail themselves of this option.

At any rate, I'm not proposing to limp around for the common good. This guy also seems to think that this surgery is free to me, but I don't know what universe he's inhabiting. We have very good health insurance, and this surgery is still going to cost us plenty out of pocket.

But...what is money for? I'll economize somewhere else.