Getting our money's worth is a national game and, in some quarters, runs to an obsession.
Few patients know that their monthly premium goes for everyone else's care too.
What people and their employers pay monthly supports the health plan that delivers care, or sometimes delivers and finances it too. Unsung because Americans have a hard time pulling for public health and cannot see that too little care for someone else could also mean too little care at home. Neither doctors nor patients usually know the real costs of the medical encounter. Not for the lab tests, or the confirmatory consultation, or the late night phone call for four more Zocor for the patient who calls on his way to Missouri and forgot his meds. All have direct and indirect quantifiable costs.