Far too many Americans have no health insurance or are underinsured. And, meanwhile, far too large a percentage of America’s Gross National Product goes toward health care. Our health care system is inadequate-- yet it costs too much, threatening the economy. How do we cover more people yet bring the costs down? That is the problem that all of America,... Full Story »
Posted by Beth Wellington
This rather broad report from the Commonwealth Fund covers the issues with our current health care system, an outline for reforming the system and some supporting economic analysis. A fair amount of data is sumarized in print and in graphs. The principal drawback to the report is that all but two of the supporting references are the Commonwealth Fund's own reports. That's fine if one believes that this venerable charitable organization (founded in 1918 to promote improvements in healthcare) is trustworthy but may not satisfy skeptics.
I didn't know much about the Commonwealth Fund so did a little research. My conclusion is that they are credible and have been putting their money into creation of hospitals and actual improvements in health care. Nevertheless, they are an organization with a point of view and have been accused by some of putting a spin on the presentation of data. Since they agree with my own conclusion, however, I am willing to cut them some slack.