Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Headscratchin' Hospital Huff and TIGGGER01

USA Today wants everyone to know: the uninsured pay nearly three times more for hospital services than health insurers pay for the same services. The paper posted this article online in a format that allows reader comments. Lucky for us all, one has come in from TIGGGER01 that reads "They are adjusting for what the illegals use and are not charged, someone has got to pay for their free ride."

Now which part should make us scratch our heads more, the finding or the comment?

Darned illegals...power-wielding insurers...bureaucratic hospitals...mutter, mutter, muttter. Wait, hold the phone. "They" is us. We are them. TIGGER01's "someone" would also be each one of us (after all, what we pay for what we get in the health care system borders on what should be illegal).

Makes all of us at the Hotel wonder...would we like to create more convenient and myopic rationalizations, or might we like to think a little more about the situation, how the system works (or fails to) and how we can make it better?

Either way, you've got to love participatory journalism.

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