They don't taste great, but they are consistently safe and produced at a low cost. Which is much more than can be said for U.S. health care.

By your description a "McDonalds" of health care, available at low price to all is abstractly a pleasant idea, though I don't think the analogy has any practical advice that we can take from franchise fast food operations.

How is quick, consistent, low-cost health care a bad thing?

Clearly we should be campaigning for great-tasting health care ;)

I disagree. Well, ok, I agree that restaurant chains serve boring food, but I don't think that is a -bad- thing for the healthcare industry.

Here's a real world example: Three weeks ago I slipped on some ice and I sprained my arm. Hundreds of thousands of people sprain their arms every year and go through the same process:

1) Go to a doctor, 90% of time they will recommend an xray

2) Get an xray, bring it back to the doctor

3) Go back to doctor, who 90% of the time reads back what the xray tech, radiologist or whoever said on the notes.

4) Pay $800-$1200 for four people to 'investigate' your arm when in reality they just passed confirmation down the pipe

Here's what I wanted: I wanted to start with the xray and have a radiologist or nurse practitioner read it back to me. I WANTED to go to the McDonalds of Arm Sprains; a low cost clean environment that serves one job with a 99.999% success rate.

I called dozens of places and only one was be willing to do the xray first. All of the other places said the same thing (yeah you'll probably need an xray, no you'll have to visit the doctor first, yes it will cost around a thousand dollars).

There's times you want a doctor and there's times when you just want a problem solved.

The only thing ridiculous in your example is the price. If you'd chipped a bone, it is your GP's responsibility to then refer you on to the next practitioner; the GP acting as the centre of the web. It only seems pointless for you because you had a fairly straightforward issue. It's not for the radiologist to refer you, because they aren't there for keeping your medical history and understanding complicating factors that might suggest against a given course of treatment.

Much and all as the internet is awash with stories of "I diagnosed something my doctor didn't!", the vast bulk of times the doctor has a better idea. In my previous career as a medical tech, I've seen quite a few people who ended up suffering far worse because they didn't want to take their issue to a doctor because they 'knew' what the issue was.

I will agree that the price is ridiculous, but the basic process isn't. Some people say that a GP's role is to deal with the morass of 'coughs, colds, and sore holes' while acting as a filter looking for the really serious stuff.

This. The headline is insanely misleading. Sure, places like Saison and Alinea are innovating, but 99% of restaurants are just microwaving the same crap over and over.

More importantly, health care has a guaranteed market and higher barrier to entry, and restaurants don't.

We'll tip out the MDs, no worry.