Great links about health care

Given all the misinformation circulating about health care, it seems relevant to post a few of my favorite health care links - the ones I have found the most informative.

How American Health Care Killed My Father
The Atlantic September 2009

After the needless death of his father, the author, a
business executive, began a personal exploration of a health-care
industry that for years has delivered poor service and irregular
quality at astonishingly high cost. It is a system, he argues, that is
not worth preserving in anything like its current form. And the
health-care reform now being contemplated will not fix it. Here’s a
radical solution to an agonizing problem.


Why We Must Ration Health Care
New York Times Magazine July 15, 2009

A bioethicist takes on the hard questions: how much is a life worth? How to determine the cost-effectiveness of new treatments and cut medical costs? Is rationing health care evil? These and other questions must be addressed to effectively solve many of the stickiest problems facing health care reform, says Peter Singer.


Ezra Klein: A Rational Look at Rationing
Washington Post June17, 2009

Ezra Klein makes the argument that rationing already goes on: we ration health care by ability to pay. Since health care isn't unlimited, we will have to "ration" it somehow. Should we ration it well or badly?


The Treatment (The New Republic's health care blog)
Blog about health care issues. Informative, generally free of polemics, cuts through a lot of the rhetoric surrounding the issue.


Health Co-Op Offers Model for Overhaul
NY Times July 6, 2009

Describes health insurance cooperatives, using the example of Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound. These cooperatives may end up as an alternative to the "public option" in health care reform, though the jury is out as to how effective they are in cutting costs and improving health outcomes.


Health Reform for Beginners: The Difference Between Socialized Medicine, Single-Payer Health Care, and What We'll Be Getting
Washington Post June 9, 2009

Discusses the definition, similarities, differences between "single payer" and "socialized medicine."