system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: The biggest challenge to affordable healthcare is that our knowledge and technology has exceeded our finances.

I've long thought that affordable healthcare isn't really feasible simply because of the medical miracles we can perform today. I'm not a mathematician, but have done rudimentary calculations with the statistics I could find, and at a couple hundred dollars per month per person (the goal as I understand it) we just aren't putting enough money into the system to cover how frequently the same pool requires common things like organ transplants, trauma surgeries and all that come with it, years of dialysis, grafts, reconstruction, chemo, etc., as often as needed.

$200/person/month (not even affordable for many families of four, etc.) is $156,000/person if paid until age 65. If you have 3-4 significant problems/hospitalizations over a lifetime (a week in the hospital with routine treatment and tests) that $156,000 is spent. Then money is needed on top of that for all of the big stuff required by many... things costing hundreds of thousands or into the millions by the time all is said and done.

It seems like money in is always going to be a fraction of money out. If that's the case, I can't imagine any healthcare plan affording all of the care Americans (will) need and have come to expect.

Edit: I have to focus on work, so that is the only reason I won't be responding anymore, anytime soon to this thread. I'll come back this evening, but expect that I won't have enough time to respond to everything if the conversation keeps going at this rate.

My view has changed somewhat, or perhaps some of my views have changed and some remain the same. Thank you very much for all of your opinions and all of the information.
gpt
The biggest problem with affordable healthcare in the US is its current delivery system. Too many people conflate healthcare with health insurance. You can't go to your local Aetna office and get a script for your allergies or a check up. 

The vast majority of healthcare is not paid for by individuals, it is paid for by third parties such as insurance companies or the government. Due to a consolidation in buyers and a disconnect between the users of healthcare and the payers of healthcare, "retail" pricing of healthcare has exploded. 

Let's say you need an MRI. The true cost of the MRI is $100. To make a profit, the provider of the MRI needs to make $150. Now, insert the insurance company which demands a 70% discount on this procedure. The provider can't give a 70% discount on $150 as that would make it untenable financially, so they mark the procedure up to $500 in order to allow for this discount to their best customer. This is how a $100 procedure becomes unaffordable to the average consumer. This is why aspirin cost $5 per pill at the hospital, and $.25 a pill when you buy it over the counter at the gas station.

So, what about really expensive, life saving transplant procedures? Well, this is what insurance SHOULD be for. When we buy insurance on our cars, that insurance does not cover oil changes, new tires, a battery, or other ongoing common maintenance. It covers you in case of a catastrophe. The insurance company is able to offset the money out on cars that are wrecked by the money in on all those people who carry insurance to mitigate their financial responsibility in case of catastrophe but who never suffer one. Using this analogy, if our car insurance covered oil changes, then it is quite possible an oil change retail price would skyrocket to abut $100 in order to allow for a 70% discount on the service for the primary payer, the insurance company.

As long as we maintain these barriers between providers and consumers (ask your doctor how much a procedure costs next time you are in for a visit) we will suffer retail pricing on healthcare that is unaffordable.