"The central cause of runaway health spending is clear. Hospitals and doctors are paid mostly on a fee-for-service basis and reimbursed by insurance, either private or governmental. The open-ended payment system encourages doctors and hospitals to provide more services -- and patients to expect them. It also favors new medical technologies, which are made profitable by heavy use. Unfortunately, what pleases providers and patients individually hurts the nation as a whole.

That's the crux of the health care dilemma, and Obama hasn't confronted it. His emphasis on controlling costs is cosmetic. The main aim of health care "reform" now being fashioned in Congress is to provide insurance to most of the 46 million uncovered Americans. This is popular and seems the moral thing to do. After all, hardly anyone wants to be without insurance. But the extra coverage might actually worsen the spending problem."

This is part of an article written by a respected business writer, Robert Samuelson, and the link to the entire article is below...

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/art...orm_96997.html

I have been trying hard to get a bit of "smarts" on this subject, but it sure gets confusing.

Seems most, if not all, want some kind of REFORM, but the shape is quite a debate. There are even those who feel that the reform being touted will REDUCE the care for the most needy folks in society.

Thought I would drop this article off for comments as it was the first I had heard this particular viewpoint !