[Hoot Gibson]

Media outlets, telecommunications industry, energy industry... By the way, did you see the CNN report on the retired guy who had no insurance who needed a thyroid operation? Price in America: $33,000 average Price in Wales (where he eventually had it done... including air fare): $3,300. He's fine; in fact, he's great.

What evidence do you have that any of the industries you mentioned are dominated by monopolies? Years ago, if you wanted to watch the news, you had three choices - ABC, NBC, or CBS. If you wanted to make a long distance phone call, then your choice was AT&T. As for energy, you could not be any more wrong. This nation's largest oil company is dwarfed by the largest oil company in the world, which is run by the Chinese government. Our oil companies are relatively minor players in the market. As for coal companies, government regulators have put many small companies out of business, so there has been some consolidation in the industry but no company holds anything approaching a monopoly.

To ask me if I saw a CNN report is crazy. CNN does not have a monopoly on the news, so fortunately I do not need to depend on it for news. However, I did watch Obama's own HHS Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, admitting in a Congressional hearing televised by C-SPAN that money set aside for high risk insurance pools will run out several years early and that the administration has no idea what the true cost of the program will be.

Government attempts to control costs never work. Either costs go up anyway, black markets emerge to fill the demand, or rationing of services takes place - or all of the above. Maybe the taxpayers of Wales subsidized the surgery in your example or maybe the patient simply got lucky. However, people willing to pay a cash fee for services can almost always negotiate a better deal than when an insurance company is footing the bill.