Wonderful examples, Don, of the waste and insanity of the current US health system. None of this benefits anyone except those with a vested interest in keeping things exactly as-is; it's certainly no better for doctors and nurses than it is for patients ~ and everyone is a potential patient!

Even the actuaries and accountants and executives who expect to make comfortable livings administrating healthcare-related paperwork should be relatively safe even in the case of effective reform ~ most of 'em anyway. A lot of lower-level clerks will be put out of work by a more efficient system, of course, and will have to find something else to do; more significantly, sales of hugely expensive equipment and plenty of pharmaceuticals will probably go way down. The sharks who make huge profits on these enterprises would have to suck it up for a quarter or two or three while looking for another way to print money for themselves.

The question is: why should the interests of so few already-privileged citizens take precedence over the general welfare of the entire nation?

The answer is: They spend obscenely large amounts of money (money the rest of us pony up when we need medical services) on lobbying Congress and on influencing the mass media. It has nothing to do with socialism vs capitalism, and everything to do with greed and lies.