One thing to remember, when confronted with a problem, is to carefully examine whether or not there's actually a problem and what that problem might be.
I'm reminded of this as I read the recent spate of stories about "fixing" health care. Although I won't discuss how to improve health care just at the moment, I do want to point out that the numbers as presented are indigestible lumps. After reading newspaper reports I can deduce that people in the US spend a lot of money on health care and some of them pay for it out of pocket rather than through insurance. But any finer measurements of health care costs are lost in the news stories, and it's impossible to determine if the plans presented by various political, business, and (as the British call them) "pressure" groups will actually improve access to health care or if the plans will simply add another layer of unwieldy bureaucracy to the health-care industry.
I believe disaggregation is a key to a better health care industry in the US — and I also believe that disaggregation of health care statistics is key to a reasonable debate over what improvements to make.
Topics: · health+care
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