[Noah930]

One of the problems, gacook, is that we frequently compare our country to other countries. But it's not an apples to apples comparison. Sometimes it's not even an apples to other-fruit-variety comparison.

Meds are cheap in Mexico. OK, what type of product or professional liability do you (not the personal "you," but the generic "you") think goes on in Mexico? Got a problem? Go pound sand. What type of liability protection do you think an individual possesses in Qatar? Probably nothing, again.

We have an expectation in America: stuff is 100% safe or it wouldn't be for sale. Maybe not reasonable, IMO, but that's the way our society thinks. However, that's not the way the rest of the world (or even sometimes the rest of the Western world) rolls. It's often buyer beware in other places. That's part of the reason why stuff (that we're talking about in this thread) is cheaper elsewhere. Are we OK with adopting the rest of these foreign places' societal expectations?

To answer your last question, I'm all for fee-for-service. Isn't that the way the vast majority of business/consumer transactions occur in America? But most people are too cheap or too broke to accept it as a way of doing medical business.