Did anyone see this episode of 20/20 on Friday night?

John Stossel first started talking, rather absurdly, about "grocery insurance" or something like that. He talked to a guy from Whole Foods and asked him what would happen if everyone could come into his store and take whatever food they wanted, and walk out without paying (much) and let their insurance cover it? The guy responded that, maybe instead of buying a $7.99 bottle of wine, they'd buy a $300.00 bottle of wine.

Then he went on to compare it to the way we pay for health care. After all, food is a necessity just as health care is.

I think he makes a lot of mistakes in his logic. First, health care isn't like a bottle of wine, or even like a loaf of bread. It doesn't matter where you buy your rye bread, it's pretty much the same thing. And you aren't going to die if you buy it at Aldi instead of at Whole Foods. So of course consumers comparison shop. But still, some DO buy that $300.00 bottle of wine. They buy it because it's the best bottle of wine they can get, not because they need it.

What you're paying for in health care is a PERSON'S expertise. Not an object. It is sort of like paying for your kids' education. Certainly you can get a decent education at many different universities, but you can pay for an excellent education at a top notch school. You don't go to Northwestern, or Harvard, because you "shopped around" for your education based on cost alone. Because all universities are not equal.

Not all people are equal either. Physicians have an expertise in one area, and some are better than others.

What Stossel is advocating might bring down some health care costs, but what will be the hidden cost of doing so? Will it be that the best and brightest will move away from health care fields? Will it be that you might not get something done that you need because you've got to pay for it out of pocket?

I often agree with Stossel, but here I think he's off base.

After talking to several MD's, I've come to the additional conclusion that any health care reform plan that doesn't also include tort reform is not going to work. You can't squeeze the physicians and providers on one end without giving them relief on the other end.