Have you heard? Health-care tales of woe.(Editorial)

When I asked you in the September issue to tell us your experiences with health care, I was pretty sure I'd get some tales of bad medical decisions and denied treatment, and I did. But there was also a compelling theme running through most of your stories:Almost every aspect of health care is expensive.

Our investigative report in this issue, "Treatment Traps to Avoid," on page 12, notes that for the insured, too much treatment, too many drugs, and not enough attention to preventive care have led to skyrocketing costs. The stories you've sent me highlight three insurance issues:

It's expensive not to have health insurance. "Our story isn't related to health insurance, but rather the lack of health insurance," a reader wrote. His partner's appendectomy ran up a bill of $34,000, including sending the appendix to the lab. "Do we even have the option to say no?" he asked. "For a 'routine' surgery, this is just insane."

A reader with excellent insurance asked the hospital what would happen if he weren't insured. His insurance company had negotiated a rate of $6,600 for his three-day hospitalization.Without insurance, he would have had to pay $22,000. "That is grossly unfair to people who are uninsured," he wrote.

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It's expensive to have health insurance. "Retiree medical benefits for my wife and me went from $110 per month the first year to $220 per month the second year to $440 per month the third year to $501 per month now," wrote a 30-year veteran of a utility company. "We are stuck with medical insurance premiums that may possibly become more than the modest pension the company is giving me."

Federal law protects people from losing ...