… and other budget draining policies in Rhode Island, I’d suggest that most of the solutions for this problem are of an indirect nature:

The heads of four Rhode Island hospitals testified yesterday that their medical institutions are teetering on the brink of financial disaster.
And they pleaded with key lawmakers to help — or at least not hurt — their hospitals in the 2008-09 state budget being debated before the House Finance Committee.
Governor Carcieri’s proposed budget would force hospitals to pay $32.7 million more for their licenses in the coming year, a move his office said is necessary to help close a deficit of at least $348 million. The proposal, along with the rest of the governor’s cost-cutting plans, now rest with the General Assembly.
“We need your help. The budget that we’re looking for is a life preserver. The one that’s out there now is made out of concrete,” Charles S. Kinney, president and chief executive officer of Westerly Hospital, told the committee. “The entire budget … is just going to have a further denigration on the finances of the hospitals, which are precarious.”

We will never achieve the right formula for providing affordable healthcare unless we retune our overall policies to decrease the number of people who are a drag on the system and increase the number of people who are not.