True, Deb, we should live our lives and be happy.

I will point out, however, something many of us LC'ers might be missing. I worked at an HMO for four years so I know that the major reason for the "skyrocketing cost of health care" is not just the price of R&D or prescription drug companies' direct marketing to consumers...it's the high-carb eating, obese people who pile onto a group health plan, then expect to pay 15% of their premium (employer picks up the rest) and a nominal co-pay and have their health problems magically disappear.

All the doctors, hospitals, drugs and HMOs in the world will never be able to compete with years and years of danish breakfasts, hamburger-and-fries lunches, pasta dinners and cake desserts.

I've moved on to a company outside of the health care industry and what I see truly scares me. It's a VERY generous company, picking up a greater percentage of our health premiums than other companies, but we just got notice that our premiums and co-pays will be shooting up dramatically as of the upcoming renewal.

I look around and see why. Most of my co-workers are not merely overweight, but OBESE. I'd say about 75% of them. They eat garbage day in, day out, work too many hours, commute all day in monster traffic jams and never go to the gym. I'll go out to lunch with them and have chicken and salad while they have burgers, fries and Cokes. Then, as I'm finishing up my meal and they're long done, they will order an extra plate of fries to share. It's awesome to see Dr. A's claims in action--that high carb-meals cause your blood sugar to skyrocket, then plummet, making you hungry again--thus the second "meal."

My point is basically that we all pay for these people, be it in health premiums, life insurance premiums, car insurance, whatever the case may be.

I wish we could go to some island (minus the fruit trees) where we could be healthy together, but as long as the obese, low-calorie "dieters" outnumber us, they will be reaching into our wallets no matter what we do.