Great post at KOS about healthcare economics

this post at dailykos.com details a speech by an economist which shows a lot of the pitfalls of our admisitrative-cost-heavy system. It also talks a bit about HSAs - I found this section particularly interesting - he's talking about HSAs:

First of all, it CAN be used to a good purpose. If the employer is putting enough $ in the account and paying the premiums, and the patient is not chronically ill, it can really help the patient out.
But, consider the 80/20 rule: 20% of patients (the chronically ill) use 80% of all healthcare services. These patients would have to pay up to their deductible every single year, which means it would be a huge financial hit for them, even if their employer was contributing. This system would put the worst burden on our sickest patients.
Second, consider a mother of 3 who makes $25k per year at Wal-Mart in Dallas, TX. Wal-Mart doesn't give her healthcare. This was the part of Uwe's talk that made the biggest impression on everyone.
He looked up the plans available to this woman online. There were 2 - one with a ~$120/mo premium and a $10,000 deductible and $5 generic/$10 brand name drug copays, and one with a $160/mo premium and a $5000 deductible.
I unfortunately do not have the numbers in front of me, but he extrapolated out health care costs over the next 10 years using the 2 1/2 % rule (healthcare costs grow at a rate 2 1/2% higher than that of the GDP) and the calculations came out that this woman would have to spend something like 55% of her income on healthcare alone.