Who rips off patients without insurance? Doctors.

Many people blame the health insurance companies for our high medical costs.  While this is definitely true to some extent, due to the high overhead, it is not the full story.  Who else rips off people?  Doctors.  Especially people without insurance.

Case in point:

I went to a podiatrist a few days ago because I thought I may have fractured my foot.  They took x-rays, examined my foot, determined it was just tendinitis, and gave me a cortisone shot.  Took a total of 30 minutes.

They sent a bill to my insurance company for $450.  My insurance company negotiates rates with them, so the final bill was reduced to about $110, which I think is very reasonable considering the services provided.

So the point of this is not to exonerate the insurance companies, but to show that if you don't have health insurance, you are at the mercy of doctor's exorbitant rates.

Review: Zeitoun

Zeitoun is simply one of the best books I have read in a long time.  The story of a man (Zeitoun) who stays in New Orleans as Katrina descends on the town, it is as much a story about what good things individuals can do as what bad things the collective government can do.  What happened to Zeitoun, a Syrian-American who obviously has much to love about his new country, should never happen to anyone in America.

While reading this book, the reader has trouble fathoming it is true.  I recommend this highly to any reader.