February 2nd: Healthcare Reform: What's Wrong and Where do We Go from Here?

As I mentioned tonight, I understand that someone named Kalynne will be leading next month's discussion on Healthcare Reform, but until she provides us with some materials, I wanted to share some of my recent favorite articles on the topic, starting with one entitled, "How American Health Care Killed My Father" from the Atlantic, which does a great job of exploring and explaining one the big reasons that I believe we have so many problems in our healthcare system: Patients are not the customers of healthcare. Patients buy insurance, and insurance companies and increasingly more often the federal government are the true customers of healthcare. Neither patients nor doctors often know the costs (or prices) of the services being delivered. The costs are hidden from us and we are led to believe that someone else is paying. The truth is that we all pay. It's a long article, but, for me at least, a fascinating read, so I wanted to post it now and give you all plenty of time to read it before next month.

Obviously I have my own biases and welcome everyone's comments and perspectives. I hope that we can get people from all sides of this issue involved throughout the month and in next month's discussion: healthcare providers, patients, insurers, administrators, etc.