As I gear up to review our family's 2008-2009 fiscal budget -- we've oddly stayed on a May-June fiscal since my husband's graduate school days -- we'll have to increase that health care budget category once again. With pretty good health insurance, we still spent several thousand dollars last year thanks to a couple of surgeries, 35 physical therapy visits (post-achilles repair, nasty-long recovery) and pediatrician visits with the two kids. Those 20 percent co-pays add up fast.

Frighteningly, health care is forecasted to eat away even more of our budget in years to come. Politicians must come up with a more affordable solution in the future. Unfortunately, socialized medicine is a dirty word for many on Capitol Hill. Yet seniors benefit from Medicare ... another name for socialized medicine.

Here are the numbers: in 2006, citizens and the U.S. government spent $2.1 trillion on health care, averaging $7,026 a person. Fast forward to 2017 and health care is estimated to cost $13,101 a person -- $4 trillion in health care totaling $1 for every $5 spent. Sobering. At that point, kiss the gym membership goodbye.