I've had problems, too, without hmo I actually have good insurance, which costs more than my rent every year because I need it so much. Right now I have a whole bunch of specialists most of which don't accept my insurance because the insurance companies pressure them to save money rather than do what is best for the patient. A lot of doctors just refuse now to deal with them. HMOs are sometimes really bad. I heard that of them was giving type 1 diabetic children medicine which is intended for type 2 diabetics. Oral medication does not do anything at all if your body makes no insulin, and type 1 (juvenile diabetics) do not make any insulin at all. Basically a death sentence, because they didn't want to pay for insulin and syringes for those kids I guess, and the longer the kid lives, the more the kid costs right? There was some big lawsuit going on over that, but it makes me so mad if there were little kids dying and they had to have KNOWN it was like giving them nothing. I don't blame you for being angry at hmos. Your story makes me angry at them too. I am going through a big medical nightmare right now. So sorry to hear about yours. Best of luck to you. Canada I have heard has good medicine but some patients have to wait much longer to get surgery there, which I think is why some cancer patients come here if they can. I remember you said you're not religious but if you'd like good thoughts sent your way I would be glad to do that for you. I read online a few years back that Denmark has free healthcare even for tourists, but I don't know if it's true. You might want to check if there's a chance you could go there. In India you can get surgeries that cost 100k in the US for 8k, at a hospital that is approved by Harvard. I was checking that out awhile ago. That hospital is totally deluxe. It's almost like a health spa, including having beds for family members, internet, ambulance meet you at the airport, etc. but it has top notch equipment and doctors educated in the US and EU. Most of their patients are from the US, Canada, and the UK. I kind of think one thing Obama should consider is giving patients vouchers to travel to approved hospitals in other countries and get their care there if it would save the government a whole lot of money. I think it might. Obviously that wouldn't help emergencies, but we outsource all kinds of stuff already. Maybe we should look at whether outsourcing some medical care could help us.