Kevin,

Just thought of yet another, perhaps more poignant variation of the afore-posted rant.

Mr.B (our patient) finds out he is "not covered" for headaches (due to the fact that his Insurance Co. discovered it was a "pre-existing" condition, when he signed up for the factory health plan), OR he loses his job (in the latter situation, we hope his coverage will still be good, since the visit happened when he was employed, but still there's the nasty business of that damned pre-existing condition, and let's face it, that's a pretty good reason for an Insurance company not to pay, don't you agree???).  

Today,  Mr.B is NOT a happy camper.  He has a 2000 to 3000 $ medical bill, but they gave him credit for the 15$ copay.   In the end, maybe they will pick up at least part of this, but in the meantime he and his wife are having a falling out about money, and this is NOT helping.  After 2 sleepless nights worrying about this situation, doncha know...the headaches have returned.  Dr.X is not the greatest doctor in the world anymore, he should have been more "conservative", and not caused his patient to run up such a bill.    And his lazy assed family doc, shoulda just seen him for a followup exam for headaches, and the whole deal would have been 75-100 bucks...tops. 

And the scenarios just keep on coming.  Amazingly, they are very real.  I've seen 'em all.

Gene