It's only natural that a candidate will be continuously campaigning. It bothers me that Obama campaigns at taxpayer expense by calling it a "fact-finding" trip or some other, equally-bogus, excuse.

I will never understand people stating as fact information they have no personal knowledge of. Call it what you will, you take personal responsibility for your medical bills or you pay a penalty, fine, fee (whatever you want to call it) and the government (and those of us who are insured) pay your bills. Sounds completely fair to me. I think the penalty should be the fine plus a percentage of any medical bills you incur on a sliding scale based on your income.

I have worked in the Medical Insurance field for 40 years, have bought medical insurance since my first day at work and never met a deductible until my husband had a heart attack 20 years ago. Since then it has been a very wise investment, however with deductible, co-insurance, drug co-pays, etc. I spend between $12,000 and $17,000 out of pocket each year for the last 20 years. If I am late making a payment on one of his bills, I get a call from a collection agency (even though 80% - 90% of the bill has already been paid) and the next person in line pays $0. 1/3 of every dollar we spend, whether on premiums, or direct medical expenses is to pay for those who are uninsured or underinsured. Underinsured meaning Medicaid which reimburses less than the actual cost of providing the service.

We all forget the premise of insurance. It insures against catastrophic loss. If we break a tail light lens in our car, we pay to get it repaired; if we total our car, the insurance that we bought months or years ago pays with a deductible. You don't wait until you need it to buy it. That is called pooling, everyones money goes into a pot and those who have a need use it.

Employers are not responsible for buying our insurance (we have grown to expect that) or making a contribution toward it. If empoyers stop offering insurance, those employees will buy it on the open market right along with everyone else. We have to get over the sense of entitlement and pay our own way. If the money is coming out of your pocket, you care more how many and what services you receive.