For various reasons I spent two days in St. Joseph's Hospital in Tucson right after the start of the year. I had no X-rays, two ECGs, and an echocardiogram (which was $2500). It was ten thousand dollars for two days.

I spent three nights in Medical Center Hospital. At least one ECG, no echocardiogram but two trips to the cath. lab and two visits with an anesthesiologist. The fee for three nights was $5,000.

You can check into MCH when you want, most times. But the hospitals in Tucson are nearly full, and cost three times as much.

When a hospital in Texas costs one third as much as one in Arizona, does anyone wonder why Arizona passed its new immigration bill?

For what it's worth, on my second trip to the cath. lab, an anesthesiologist that I didn't know came to shake my hand. "It took 6 ccs of Versed to put you out."

I was confused; the doctor said, "If I'd had one cc I'd sleep all day. With 5 ccs you were making sentences and it took 6 to put you out."

For some reason this is not the slightest bit surprising.