[gdpawel]

I've observed incessant complaints on various cancer blogs and discussion boards about BC/BS (Blue Cross/Blue Shield) "denial of coverage" on the backs of injured and diseased human beings during their fight with the great crab.

In one case, a patient was denied a Cat scan. The poster said, "because BC/BS is practicing medicine and deciding that such a thing is not medically necessary." The physician wasn't allowed to make a diagnosis based on the best available technique.

Another poster said that BC/BS had decided not to cover a Pet scan, even against the physician protest. And another said that BC/BS had denied covering treatment because it was just too expensive.

One poster goes on to say, "It would appear to me that we in the USA are rapidly closing in on having all of the drawbacks of socialized medicine, with none of the purported benefits." The controls are mostly privately financed, but are given over to remote corporate bureaucrats who determine who shall live and who just isn't worth it.

Evidence-based medicine has morphed into pharma-based medicine and HMO-based medicine. Evidence is based on data from medical journal articles, epidemiology and economics, which relies on randomized clinical trials, which doesn't even require a medical education.

Nonphysicians trained in social science, science or even public policy analysis, have judgement over medicine. Where doctors used to define the "standard of care," now payers redefine the standards for appropriate medical care, encouraging doctors to act in ways to promote their financial interest when they make medical decisions.

America has granted private insurance companies the right to create bottlenecks in the financing of health care in order to extract profits out of the suffering of ordinary people, without providing any actual health care whatsoever.