possibly noteworthy wrote:
The last several slides are new to this briefing.
David M. Walker, comptroller general of the United States, at the 2008 Economic Forecast Forum:
The federal government is on a “burning platform,” and the status quo way of doing business is unacceptable.
• Faster Economic Growth Can Help, but It Cannot Solve the Problem
Are the candidates confronting this issue? Mostly they seem to ramble on about "coverage."
This graph of per capita health care spend versus life expectancy offers some hope. The reason our health care system is fucked up is that health care isn't like cars or houses. You don't have the option of cheap healthcare, in the way that you can buy a cheap car. The difference in terms of the quality of your life is far more substantial, and so the market can't set sane prices. You can't negotiate a good price if you can't walk away from the table.
