>Just another note on this. Tomorrow I take my daughter for a sports physical so she can play intramural sports in highschool next year. My insurance does not cover that (although it does cover an annual physical so why it doesn't cover a sports physical I don't know) so I will have to pay $30.00 out of pocket for it (what her physician charges). Not an unreasonable cost.

Compare that to what a mechanic charged for just looking under the car to diagnose - $24, or what an AC guy wanted to charge per hour - $75.

>Now those that cannot pay (according to our local government) because they earn less than the median income can get a voucher and take it to their doctor's office and the state will reimburse the doctor for the cost of the physical. So the student's family pays nothing. Of course, that is only if your household earns less than the median income and that may only be in our state or even county. I think it has to do with how a state spends federal dollars given to each school system.

This is my cue for "I told you so, eh?", probably. It all depends where you are. Not available in all areas. YMMV. No system.

>Of course if the student cannot afford to pay the $30.00 for the sports physical I don't know how they would even play sports since some of the uniforms now cost over $300.00 and the state has severely limited what type of fund raising can be done by students and schools...

Welcome to the "cost of free education".

Amazingly, the textbooks are free here (though you have to return them at the end of the year) - we had to buy them. They were probably quite subsidized, as they were published by the state's Institute for Textbook Publishing, and they were relatively cheap. Still, it's one of the places where we learned the market - first day of school you'd get a bunch of guys selling their old books in the schoolyard.