I agree with you exactly for the reasons you gave.

The effective tax on our discretionary incomes that comes from rising prices related to higher fuel costs is comparable to the tax on our discretionary income that comes from higher healthcare and insurance costs that comes from a failed legal system that does more for trial lawyers than anything else.

If you want to give American's the biggest bang for their discretionary income buck, then reform the legal system to eliminate or severely curtail contingency fees for lawyers and put them on hourly rates. Also, give the trail lawyers some consequence for unethical or dishonest behavior that is actually enforcable.

If you cut down on the lottery mentality in our legal system, then you would see all insurance costs go down and all industries such as healthcare where insurance costs are such a significant cost of doing business.