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I'm sure the machinery totalled in the millions, but I only spent about an hour all total in the rooms where it lived.

So if you have a $1,000,000 machine and the things last well over ten years, that machine is worth only about $273 a day. They appear to run them 24/7, but for the sake of simplicity let us say the machine is used ten times a day. This means it should cost me about $ 27 to use it. If the person who ran the machine for me is worth $50 an hour, and she does two tests in an hour, then that should cost me $25. Mark that up by 100% for overhead and the test could be reasonably worth $100.

Of course if utilization is higher than I say - and I'm sure it is, since there were patients stacked up like cordwood waiting for it, as I was - this figure would be way, way, too high.

The actual bill for the test was $1,200!

Do you see now why I am so puzzled, and outraged, by this?

So some poor homeless guy with no money comes in and would be charged that. Because I have insurance, they fought down the bill so the test probably cost me only about $400. That still seems like at least four times more than the fair value of the service.

I don't understand why a cost structure like this is tolerable. Do you know of any cost breakdowns that show where the money goes?

Oh, it's cheaper in the Philippines because people are cheaper. Doctors make about $300 a month. I could afford to run my own hospital over there, with one patient -- me -- if it proved necessary.

I guess I can do that because I know in advance that I won't sue myself ...