Nate Duehr wrote:
> Same thing with another almost-retired acquaintance who works in
> sales in a small store-front.  He recently fell ill, spent 6 days in
> the hospital (diagnosed as a heart-attack, but he says he felt no
> heart-attack symptoms at all, and was feverish and vomiting, not
> "typical" heart-attack signs... but he says the docs are going to say
> what they want to say) without insurance, and was billed for $117,000
> US.

That is disgusting. What did they do to him, that could cost $20k/day?

The US healthcare system is definitely broken, and it doesn't make any sense 
to me. The free market works very well for other parts of the economy, 
what's so different about medical care? Why is it so outrageously expensive? 
Where does the bulk of the cost come from -- surely not the doctors' and 
nurses' salaries, rent, and equipment?

I smell overregulation, government instated monopoly, or unions.

Are there any countries out there, that have a successful free market-based 
health care system?

Vitaliy 

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