I realized today that my ideas about what we should do about health care are driven by a fundamental belief that the changes need to come from the bottom up, which means I believe the changes in our health care system need to come from America's citizens—not its government officials or its pharmaceutical companies or its hospitals or its health insurance companies, etc.
Apparently, others believe the changes need to come from the top down, as evidenced by the approach the Center for Practical Health Reform takes. They never explicitly say the changes need to come from the top down, but to accomplish all they suggest (things like "universal health coverage" and "compatible information technologies") would certainly require government intervention and some kind of centralized control.
Although I disagree with CPHR's approach to health reform, the organization does do a great job of summing up the crisis in health care and its probable impacts.
On a side note, notice how CPHR equates those who don't have health care coverage—health insurance—with those who can't pay for health care... as if insurance is a requirement for obtaining health care. And notice how they fret about the increasingly uninsured population.
Do I fret? Maybe a little. But, as I wrote on May 19, I believe individuals paying cash for health care is what will ultimately bring health care costs back under control. And that can't happen when all of America is depending on health insurance....
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