Ironic and ridiculous health care situation...

[Flybye]

Doesn't that sound like something straight out of an episode of Seinfeld?

That is exactly what I was thinking.
That is the most ridiculous thing that I have ever heard of.

[BikeDutchess]

There was an article in our local paper this morning about this: Health care reform: Influx of newly insured may overwhelm Utah docs. The situation in Massachusetts was noted:

..in Boston, people wait longer than those in other major metropolitan areas to be seen by a doctor. [...] And this is in Massachusetts, the report points out, which has the highest physician-to-population ratio of any state in the U.S. "I think that [Massachusetts] is a pretty good laboratory for what we'd see in the nation if we were to move to some sort of national health care reform," [David] Squire [executive director of the Utah Medical Education Council (UMEC)] said.

I don't think that is a reason to stop trying to reform the system. But I do agree it's going to be very, very difficult. I've worked for an insurance company for 15 years and my DH works for a health care provider. I don't think there is any single party to this mess that can be labeled the "bad guy", but there are many pieces to the system that contribute to its current dysfunctional state.