But first, the uninsured are billed the “standard charges” (which no insured person pays). Then, when they cannot pay, bill collectors are sent, who attach their credit cards or homes (if they have one), and who threaten to report them to the INS. These charges are typically 3-6 times greater than what is normally collected from HMOs, insurers, and managed care plans. I recently experienced this personally, when a routine blood test was deemed not covered. The lab (a large national company) normally collects $85 for the test from discount contractors, but because they were billing me as an individual, their itemized bill was $401, more than 4 times greater. I got my physician to write a note and the bill was adjusted down to $85. If this had been for a hospitalization, the bill might have been $8500 to a plan or insurer, but $40,100 to an individual.

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DOJ CLAIM: The PATRIOT Act allows law enforcement to conduct investigations without tipping off terrorists by delaying notification that their homes or offices have been searched.

The FBI already had authority under FISA to conduct secret searches in international terrorism investigations. The PATRIOT Act permits the FBI to conduct so-called sneak and peek searches - where the FBI can search someone’s home or office without notifying them until weeks or even months later - in criminal cases, including cases having nothing to do with terrorism. While courts had previously held that this delay in notification is permissible in limited circumstances, the PATRIOT Act provided statutory authority with entirely inadequate standards. The PATRIOT Act allows these extraordinary searches to be used in all criminal cases, not just terrorism cases, and the standard is so loose that it could arguably be used in almost every criminal case. The presumption has long been that law enforcement officers have to knock and announce themselves when they execute a search warrant, and an exception to that rule should be made only in limited circumstances with strict guidelines - which the PATRIOT Act does not contain.

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Pretty well sums it up