> In New York state half of property taxes is for county contributions to the state medicaid fund.

That is an insane statistic. Surely the state can throw some weight around to say enough is enough?

I just had my own insane encounter with healthcare. They "accidentally" billed us insurance rate which was about 4-5x more than self-pay. Why is there 4-5x overhead when dealing with insurance? (I know there's the negotiation stuff) but also seems to be quite a mess. I'm actually more mad at hospitals and clinics lately than insurance. Seems they have agreements with companies to "dispense" things at 4-5x the actual price, expecting insurance or taxpayers to pick up the tab. Seems like blatant fraud.

Sorry for the rant, I agree with everything else you mention :)