So there’s another version of the fraud that was exposed somewhat last summer, involving recruiting a whole lot of patients for unnecessary surgery. The Blues in particular seem to have been badly hit by this new scam. However, speaking as a British male born since the NHS stopped routinely brutalizing babies in the late 1940s, I was particularly horrified at what one 24 year old male was prepared to go (my emphasis added below) through to make a little extra cash and get a holiday on the beach in LA.

A 24-year-old Phoenix man underwent an endoscopy, colonoscopy, sweaty palms surgery, nasoplasty and a circumcision at one clinic — all unnecessary, said Blue Cross/Blue Shield investigator Tom Brennan. The man lost sensitivity in his hands as result of the palm surgery, a procedure that involves collapsing a patient’s lung to clamp a nerve near the spine that controls perspiration.

The Sex in the City plot where Charlotte converts to Judahism always made me wonder–what if a guy had to convert? How far would he have had to go, and was this individual trying to join up?