I was intentionally being very generous. The thing about the cost sharing you mention; it's the kind of change that companies make all the time. An extra $200 out of a family's monthly check can be ruinous.
Yeah, and those numbers only ever seem to go one way, with no end in sight considering that (last I checked) insurance premiums are still increasing faster than base inflation.
Between the savings crisis in every generation past the Boomers (worse with each subsequent generation), and healthcare costs going ever-upward, I have a hard time seeing how we're going to have a strong economy in 20 or so years as more and more of our consumer base gets ground into paste by the wheels of The System and can no longer drive the economy with spending, yet we still don't seem to be anywhere near fixing any of that.
