PUBLIC MARKS with tag "heart bypass surgery"

Tackling the high cost of health care is politically bruising and difficult work around the world. Among developed countries, only the Norwegians rival our level of spending. The French wrestle with rising costs every year. The Canadians are searching for a better model, and have had their eyes on France. But for all their troubles, the French and the Canadians - two bogeymen in the American reform debate - spend much less and live longer than we Americans.

Uninsured Americans also are shopping around for surgery in the U.S. in record numbers. Rodney Larson, a self-employed electrician from Minnesota, used Healthbase Online Inc. to arrange a triple heart bypass at Galichia Heart Hospital in Wichita, Kansas. He paid $13,000 flat fee for the surgery, about $90,000 dollars less than the rate for uninsured patients in Minnesota.