[Bobcat]

Wayne ... thanks for the first hand info . There is always a lot of "I heard" stuff out there . You are correct on the drug costs with the private insurance companies here as I have experienced that myself . One of my daughters is a P.A for two Infectious disease doctors and one of them went ballistic last summer when an insurance company refused to approve the drug he said was essential because of cost .
As far as the administrative costs , one thing to keep in mind is that Govt. doesn`t need to make a profit while the private sector does ... and I don`t doubt that salaries etc do figure into it . However , Medicare and Medicade are both essentially bankrupt and going further in the hole every year . It`s my feeling that if their true and complete cost of operation were known , the public would probably have blood squirting from their eyes in anger .
As you said , probably the best system is a combination of a parallel and possibly Medicare/Medicade ... but like Canada , the govt will resist that 100 %. What my concern is that we will destroy everything to "help" 30% of the people who don`t have insurance for whatever reason .