Another problem with the American way of doing healthcare is that hospitals underreport bad doctors. ABC has details in their article on Medical Horror Stories.

When Dr. Robert Ricketson found he had no titanium rod to use for the back surgery he was performing, he opted to stick in a screwdriver instead. Three corrective surgeries later, his patient was left a bedridden paraplegic. It turned out Ricketson had previously lost his medical license in Oklahoma and Texas, but was still able to find work in Hawaii.

Problem doctors are to be reported to the data bank by state medical boards and hospitals. But a new study by Public Citizen says hospitals, particularly, are failing to do so.

It was estimated that there would be between 5,000 and 10,000 doctors reported to the data bank ever year. In fact, the average has been only 650 cases a year, according to Public Citizen.

"About half the hospitals in the country had never reported one doctor out of the couple hundred-thousand doctors that are on the staffs of those hospitals," said Dr. Sidney Wolfe, the director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group.

"It's just not believable. The only answer is: The hospitals aren't doing their job disciplining doctors," he said.

Freedom comes at a price. It means less regulations. Less eyes watching the system to make sure it doesn't mess you up. Is that how you want your freedom-based, capitalist healthcare to function? Where everything is driven by "best-bidder" ethics?