The average American wants the best healthcare that someone else's money can buy. As soon as you ask them to pay extra for brand name drugs, or have a higher copay for expensive procedures, they start examining whether they really want what they are asking for. My point -- making the patient pay a substantial portion of the cost is not a bad thing -- it keeps the doctor and patient both paying attention and sweating the details. If you look at the past 20 years, with physician panels and HMOs and fixed copays and wellness exams, you realize why costs are exploding. Which is exactly what is wrong with the present "reforms", more "Nanny government" givaways.

John
Internal Medicine