[hobbes9324]

Huh. In Nevada, if I went bare, I couldn't practice. No hospital would give me privliges.

I'm going to avoid the political angle, although I obviously have some strong feelings about the system.

The best explanation I have ever heard about why our healthcare system is so screwed up follows 0-

Medicine is like a three legged stool -
-- leg one --- cutting edge technology
-- leg two --- immediate care (on demand)
-- leg three -- for free, or pretty close for free.

The deal is, you can have any two of the three - but not all of them.

Immediate care for free - third world medicine - you may have someone shaking a chicken over your head to cure your brain tumor, but the price is right, and you can have it today.

Cutting edge care for free (or low cost) - to some degree, the socialized medicine countries do this. You may wait 8 mos to get your gallbladder out, or not be allowed dialysis if you're over a certain age. Does keep the costs down, at some social cost.

Cutting edge today - our current model, for the most part. INSANELY expensive, but pretty good care, when you need it.

BUT YOU CAN'T have all three. As a society, we have elected to ignore this.....which is why we're in the spot we're in.

MM MD