If We Had A Medical Section I'd Put This In It

[Pat Mustard]

Oh, I forgot to mention that the hospital in question is a nonprofit establishment.

https://www.bannerhealth.com/locations/s...cal-center#

So they don't have to worry about those pesky taxes, either.

My wife is an RN at that hospital, Min. She's a floating nurse, not assigned to any particular station but she most often works with psychiatric patients so I guess you probably didn't see her.

I'm a tech/physical science guy so economics is witchcraft to me. I don't really know what I'm talking about here so I'll throw that up up-front but I wonder who pays for the cutting-edge technology you have available at that hospital including available drugs. I'm not making any insinuations here because I really don't have a clue to the answer to my question. I don't know if the hospital chain (Banner Health is major and is one of the largest employers in the Phoenix area and has hospitals in California and Alaska as well) is a robber baron or they have genuine expenses related to development of the cutting-edge technology that keeps our old, happy asses alive longer than our predecessors.

Not saying you're wrong, Min but I question your cynicism. There's always two sides to a story and all that. We (Americans) do seem to pay more for our health care but we also seem to be more beneficiaries to the cutting edge of medical break-throughs. Somebody has to pay for that. R&D isn't cheap.

On your economics point most economists treat it as witchcraft too. About the only two major modern economists who work under a reality based system ate Paul Krugman and Ha-Joon Chang (I'd say Daniel Kahnemann too but he's a psychologist working in economics, not an economist).

On your R&D point, the majority of R&D is either state run or state financed. Most major companies have R&D budgets only for the generous tax breaks spending labelling as such generates (often times you get more of your tax bill written off than what is reported spent). Hence Gillette having a $2bn "research spend" putting an extra blade on their disposables.