-=> Rob Mccart wrote to DIGIMAUS <=-

 RM> Interesting. It seems that in most places where healthcare is not
 RM> socialized that the hospitals and doctors must get together and
 RM> quietly set high prices rather than lowering prices to compete..

That's certainly true here in the States.  A good example is in my area,
there is a singular healthcare system called Ballad Health which is the
rsult of two local healthcare systems merging (the state law against such
mergers was changed for this).

Ballad Health is notorious for its poor quality of healthcare, its
stinginess when it comes to providing high-quality supplies and equipment to
its patients, its willingness to sue patients when they screwed up their
billing process, and for firing all of its nurses who refused to take the
COVID "vaccine" (now they wonder why they can't hire nurses).

I was forced to stay at the local Ballad Health hospital during my first
heart attack.  The doctors I dealt with were arrogant (God complex) and
incompetent.  At night, in the large heart ward I was in, there was but a
single nurse with 30 patients.

It's not just socialized medicine that has issues...

Honestly, the VA (government) hospital has better nurses, offers better
care, and has -much- better food (honestly!) than the other hospital.

 RM> On a semi-related issue, if you don't qualify for the Gov't
 RM> health care in Canada and have to pay full price for treatment
 RM> the cost would often be 3 or 4 times as much in the USA as it
 RM> costs here - for more serious things like operations and broken
 RM> bones and such, not just a doctor's visit to get a prescription.

Doctors set their own prices and if you can, you shop around.

Now I also have Medicare (I'm forced to) because I am on SSDI.  Thankfully,
Social Security enrolled me in their "Extra Help" program due to the
severeness of my disabilities and that means the state of Tennessee pays my
monthly $184 bill.  If I had to pay that, I'd be even more destitute than I
already am!

 RM> She gave them the price and the kids mother laughed and said
 RM> it would have been 4 times that much back home..

That also depends on where you live in the US.

-- Sean

... Can a frog jump higher than a house? Of course, a house can't jump.
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 * Origin: Outpost BBS * Johnson City, TN (618:618/1)