Only Anecdotal

There sure are a lot of comparisons between doctors and car mechanics. I guess I can see the similarities. Consultants with expert knowledge that costs us a lot. Repairs needed. I understand that the comparison is often made to emphasize the point that that we are rather free to shop around for people who do repairs on our automobiles, and there is–to some extent–more transparency in that process than there is in the healthcare process. We do not depend on insurance for most car repairs, and not at all for maintenance. And our lives can be significantly altered by the quality of work; in fact, shoddy workmanship on those large pieces of fast-moving metal might well land us in search of services from our local body (human body) shop.

But I have to say that in urgent situations both of the automotive and of the human sort, we are rather at the mercy of the closest trauma center. And really, we can only hope in these situations that