Richie, I have trouble believing some of that.

A person with a broken arm would head to the hospital or ER to get it set.

When I was in Canada a few years ago and had a flare-up of a problem of mine that required a hospital visit, they saw me IMMEDIATELY and charged my insurance company about ONE FIFTH of what my local (Southern NH) hospitals charged and that included X-Rays, diagnostics, etc.

But to your point of some of the horror stories, why, then, do the Brits outlive us? Why are their health statistics so much better? ...the same for teh French, the Canadians, the Swiss - EVERYONE in the industrialized world - and yet we continue to pay 2-10 times what others pay for services that do not give the same results.