Why Premiums Are So High: Chapter 287

Clients invariably tell me of their own encounters with health care. Here's another anecdote from just the other day.

"I took my wife to the doctor for a varicose vein procedure. We arrived for her appointment at 9:00 in the morning. By 11:30 we were at Panera Bread having lunch. There was no surgeon; no anesthesiologist. Not sure what exactly was done but for the short time she was there, I never expected to see a bill for $13,000!"

Stories like this drive me nuts. Is this a fair price? (Maybe it is.) I imagine a doc doing about a dozen or so procedures a day at $13,000 a pop. Wow. Isn't it just a matter of time until the opening of a "Veins R Us" where you can have sclerotherapy for $1000?

I hope so . . . . .