Hey Art, I was on the other end of you working at a doctor's office and doing insurance billing as one of my duties.
Besides the insane procedure codes, which were designed by legal whiz kid insurance bureaucrats to slow down the process and squeeze the most juice from it; I can tell you that 30% of health care costs go directly to the billing bureaucrats which are RUN by these insurance companies. Claims are rejected because of ONE simple misplaced number, whether it's a typo or the clerk couldn't find the right diagnosis code to put under the first diagnosis code. And the book or on-line information for that is a nightmare. Most insurance billing is hit or miss; they don't pay much and WON"T pay much because certified insurance billers are a big expense for any business. Besides, doctors know how to game the system. I worked for one, and I've been to them. I catch them right away what they're doing. THEY are the ones that running health care costs sky high. The more procedures they run, the better that second mortgage of theirs will get paid for that house they have on the out-islands. Oh, and how many doctors have secondary businesses running lab procedures, X-rays and MRI centers? Come in with a sore throat? Maybe you have a suspicious sound in your arteries; therefore before you know it, you are being thoroughly checked out by his lab and being billed for procedures that your insurance company will pay him hundreds, maybe even thousands of dollars for.

The system is BROKEN Tom, maybe you have an excellent healthcare program with your wife being PART of the program itself, but most insurers are closing the loop on what they cover and how ...now. We need a secondary system in place. I don't know about Arizona, but here you sure as hell don't get decent health care if you can't afford it. People with cancer for instance have a 40% higher chance of dying from it, because they won't get the proper procedures done. Also, if you own your own home, you stand a very good chance of losing it to your outstanding medical bills. America. The only place you can work your whole life, building a life; and then pretty much turn it all back to the state and become penniliess IF you can't afford your health insurance.