http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070508/hl_nm/hospitals_overcharge_study_dc

You can't win. Either you have insurance, and pay outrageous sums (hoping you never have to file a claim) or you don't, and when you DO need a doctor you get wallet-raped.

I've been without health insurance for years, although Massachusetts is instituting mandatory coverage, so I'll have to go on the state plan soon.

This legalized extortion shit pisses me off. The problem is always framed as 'not everyone has insurance to pay for health care and prescription drugs'. The insurance companies, big pharmaceutical corporations, and the medical industry itself ARE the problem, as they've gobbled up vast amounts of the social pie.

As our overpaid elected whores get being dictated to by the lobbyists for those 'industries', none of the cowards come out and say what needs to be said, that the rampant greed has to be checked by returning to the strict consumer regulations that keep prices fair.

Banking, Medicine, Insurance, all have grown increasingly, rapidly more costly since this 'deregulation' frenzy began. 'Anti Big Government' equals 'Let's soak the consumer for all they're worth!!!!'