Image @ CompareNow.com

Duke Helfland/LAT: California cracks down on discount health plans:

In 2001, the former director of the Department of Managed Health Care decided that the agency had no jurisdiction over the discount outlets because they did not [meet] the state's definition of health plans.

Four years later, however, the department's current director reversed the policy, arguing that the discount firms met the definition by arranging for services in exchange for fees.

Ain't that America.