John Stossel Has Cancer, Laments 'Socialist' Hospital's Customer Service

Fox News host John Stossel has lung cancer. But don't worry, his doctors tell him he'll be fine. No, Stossel has something else on his mind in an opinion piece published Wednesday on Fox News. "I get excellent medical care here. But…I have to say the hospital's customer service stinks." Stossel's list of customer-service-don'ts includes long wait times, inability to email doctors, repetitive forms, indifferent hospital workers, and expensive tests he isn't convinced are necessary. He blames the bad customer service on hospitals being "socialist bureaucracies" that answer to the "government, lawyers, and insurance companies" instead of actual patients.

Stossel's solution? Get rid of insurance companies and government health care and have patients pay hospitals directly as the free marked intended. "When the customer doesn't pay, customer service rarely matters," Stossel writes. In other words, beeping hospital machines keep patients awake at night because "bureaucrats don't care if you sleep." He says hospitals should take a lesson from plastic surgeons and Lasik doctors, who do things like give out their cellphone number to patients because their income relies on keeping patients happy. Read the full piece here. (More John Stossel stories.)