Colonoscopies Explain Why U.S. Leads the World in Health Expenditures

[adieu]

18. You shouldn't shop around

This is your body, fergawdsakes. You think you should get a cheapie colonoscopy at Al's Kwik-e Colonoscope-R-Us? Prices should be pretty much the same anywhere around the country.

And certainly, considering how Jiffy-Lube and Oil-Changers gouge their customers by billing them for services not provided, we MUST NEVER have a for-profit medical system.

I don't mind a for-profit optometry store, because all I'm buying there are glasses, and you know whether the glasses you bought works or not. There's very little medical uncertainty in buying glasses (or even contact lenses). But how can you accept or trust a person who says, "Tests look fine, but look at this x-ray (you don't know how to read x-rays), see these dots? They could be trouble. How about we schedule a intra-fulmenitic scan to check out those dots. Could be nothing, but we can't be too careful, right?" Then they hit you with a $2000 bill for checking something that they either know is nothing of concern or they don't even bother to do the checking. You sit in some BS contraption and then they say, "Well, looks all right. But come back in 6 months and we'll revisit it."

What are you going to do? If it's a for-profit business that you just went to, do you trust their claims or do you go looking around for another doctor to check things out? If the other says it's not worth considering, who do you trust? And what if you already paid $4000 for the scan and some additional tests? How do you get that money back, if at all?

It's disgusting. Medical services must be non-profit and be publicly funded. We're far rich enough to fund medical services for all people in the US, including illegal aliens, and not require any additional taxes or fees. Just cut the insurance providers and the pharmas out of the loop.