>>All true.
>>
>>And employers are sticking the costs to the employee. In the name of (and I've heard this pitch personally) "making better choices for your healthcare." Right: when I need a cervical spinal fusion (had one last August), I'm going to look around for a cheaper neurosurgeon? Oh, I could put it off right? (It was at the point I told my wife I was glad there was a fix, because I could take about 6 months of this, max, before saying my goodbyes.) (Mine was done by the head of the UK Hospital Spinal Clinic, and I walked out of the hospital the next day with no pain.) "Making better choices" is a load of manure, spread by people who know better, who know they are lying to your face and have no shame.
>
>Look, choices are necessary. What else would occupy your mind and distract it from the sensation caused by a, say, crushed limb, out-of-whack pacemaker, or being numbed out of your skull by painkillers, but the pleasure of contemplating choices, whether to do procedure A which is approved by my insurer but leaves me deep in the do[ugh!]nut hole, or procedure B which will cost me far more; should I insist on staying in the hospital until I'm OK or when they say I'm OK, and all those little things that make health so much like a burger.

ROFL!