people who specialize in laboratory testing. Nurses play an important role in patient care but if you start talking to them about Q.C. or spectrophotometry or immunohematological antigen-anibody complexes you get a blank look. It's just not their specialty. Nurses get paid a lot more than I do too, and I'm not saying that they don't deserve enery penny they get. They really do. Due to the fact that nurses are a more visable part of the hospital (and the fact that they have a union) they get paid a fair wage. Laboratories are back in some corner of the hospital and are not unionized, even though there is a severe shortage of lab techs our salaries have not risen as fast as I think they should have. This is beginng to change and with the retirement of baby boomers hospitals will have to adress staffing shortages by giving me more money. Hopefully. The point of all this ranting is that I don't trust any government effort to control costs or limit profits. I like it when doctors (and even insurance companies) make scads of money because it shows that market forces are working and that my future prospects are still OK. If the healthcare industry is forced by Uncle Sam to control prices and cut costs it's not going to be doctors or insurance providers or administrators or anyone else wearing a suit that's going to feel the pinch first. It's going to be me. If profit is removed