There was a story in today's Denver Post ( http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_8089112) that continues to propagate ignorance on health care-related issues.

While this story contains numerous statements where the reported premise is automatically taken as gospel truth, I decided to point out a single statement that represents the lack of in-depth reporting seen in so many health care/health insurance-related media reports one sees these days.

In the story, there is a statement about a health insurance cap proposed by the State of Colorado that might be set at "roughly $50,000, which is not enough to cover a day or two of hospitalization."

The real story (if the Denver Post and others chose to "dig" a bit deeper) is that so many people take that statement as gospel fact and don't ask the more obvious question: What the heck is "costing" so much and why?

As an expert in this field, I can assure you that the $50,000 may be what the hospital and doctors bill the insurance company...but it does not represent the true "cost" of the health care received. That $50,000 is a "wishlist" figure that is loaded with profit and sometimes outright fraud thrown in for good measure.

When you have seen (like I have) single doses of Aspirin billed at $25.00 a piece, daily "Drive By" doctor consultations billed at $200-$500 each while a patient is in a coma, and relatively simple surgical procedures billed into 5-figures, one comes to see that the real problem is lack of market competition between doctors and hospitals for services rendered.

Why do you think the American Medical Association (AMA) has come out forcefully against Wal-Mart clinics where office visit costs are public and much lower than what doctors and hospitals bill today (approx. $25.00 a visit vs. $140)? Why do you think that doctor and hospital associations are so quiet when media reporters write these ignorant stories and ignore the cost side of the equation? Believe me...they LOVE it that their out-of-sight charges for their services are off the public's radar!

Simple competition on the top 50 or 100 most common surgical procedures performed by doctors and hospitals would result in reduction of health care costs by over 50% overnight. I proposed just such a measure to the Colorado Blue Ribbon Commission on Health Care during their hearings last year (among other simple solutions for saving literally millions of dollars).

Doctors and hospitals are killing health care, not the lack of health insurance.

That's the real story...and no one seems to want to report it.