I must say knowing both the English and US system well the thing that strikes me most is the massive amount of administration and bureaucracy in the US.
My wife visits one doc who works alone in his practise. He has one medical support staff, nurse or whatever and two fulltime accounting / administration staff. These girls seem to be on the phone almost fulltime with insurance companies sorting stuff out.
A doctors visit can produce about 5 or 6 pieces of mail here sometimes. Pregnancy throws up all kinds of tests, samples, scans etc and you seem to get a different letter from each link in the chain either asking for a co-pay or sometimes just informing you you don't have to pay a co-pay and then a final letter from the insurance company telling you exactly what went down.
I don't like all the damn paperwork on my desk
