Was one of my key takeaways from Hillary's healthcare initiative.  But in all candor, there is not a silver bullet or magic wand for curing our nation's healthcare ills.

I think Mrs. Clinton missed out on some ideas that could have served her well and would serve any presidential candidate well.  Specific areas of missed opportunity include: transparency in healthcare pricing, education, personal responsibility and wellness.

As an individual who leans toward the conservative side of the political aisle, I hear all the time that liberals have this mindset that the general population is not really capable as a whole of taking care of itself and it is the government is the solution to our needs.  Now there may be a hint of truth to this, but I would guess that most liberals would strongly argue otherwise.

That said Mrs. Clinton's softness on personal responsibility and transparency might be ammunition for conservatives.   On balance, her plan put's much more responsibility on the healthcare system and employers rather than on the individual.  I'm a firm believer that if you are going to take from the system, you should have to give to it, and to me that does not just mean showing up for a screening or reading a pamphlet.  It means understanding the causes of illness and the effects of poor and good health decisions.  It means financing to some extent the coverage and the care.  It means taking responsibility for the education of one's children, teaching and reinforcing the value of healthy habits.

Mrs. Clinton is looking for $110 Billion to cover the costs of her initiatives, but did you know there was a Milken Institute Study released in October of last year (2007 for the calendar impaired), that estimated the cost of chronic illness (cancer, diabetes, hypertension, stroke, heart disease, pulmonary conditions and mental illness) have a total impact of $1.3 trillion annually on the nations economy with most of that being in lost productivity?  More importantly, and this is something to think about, over the next 15 years with "modest improvement s in prevention and treatment (which to me is nutrition + exercise = wellness) 40 million cases of chronic illness could be avoided representing a positive economic benefit of $1.1 trillion. 

Kind of makes Hillary's $110 billion look kind of puny huh?