A friend sent me the link to this petition drive by Lifetimetv.com "in partnership with physicians, advocates and survivors across the nation." It has to do with legislation that will be introduced in Congress this year to "require insurance companies to cover a 48-hour minimum stay for mastectomy patients and a 24-hour stay for a woman undergoing a lymph node dissection. The legislation ensures that a doctor and a patient will make a decision together about staying at a hospital after a mastectomy."

I know that when I had my hysterectomy, I was stunned to find out that my insurance company considered it an "outpatient" procedure. My surgeon felt that I needed to stay in the hospital at least overnight, and fortunately, the insurance company agreed to cover that expense.

Hospital care is enormously expensive, and you can't blame the insurance companies for wanting to make money, but when you're talking about the welfare of patients, it should be a little different than most forms of commerce, I think.