5 Myths About Our Ailing Health System

by | Nov 24, 2008 | Learn |

Here’s a great article by Shannon Brownlee and Ezekiel Emanuel published in the Washington Post on November 23, 2008.

By debunking the prevailing myths about our health care system and the cost of reform, they aim to keep health reform alive in uncertain economic times. Here’s an excerpt:

With Congress ready to spend $700 billion to prop up the U.S. economy, enacting health-care reform may seem about as likely as the Dow hitting 10,000 again before the end of the year. But it may be more doable than you think, provided we dispel a few myths about how health care works and how much reform Americans are willing to stomach.

Here are their 5 myths:

  1. America has the best health care in the world.
  2. Somebody else is paying for your health insurance.
  3. We would save a lot if we could cut the administrative waste of private insurance.
  4. Health-care reform is going to cost a bundle.
  5. Americans aren’t ready for a major overhaul of the health-care system.

» Read the whole article

Shannon Brownlee is the author of “Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer.” She is the winner of several prestigious journalism awards, including the 2004 Association of Health Care Journalists Award for Excellence in Health Care Journalism, the Victor Cohn Prize for Excellence in Medical Science Reporting, the National Association of Science Writers Science-in-Society Award, and the Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists.

Ezekiel Emanuel is the author of “Healthcare Guaranteed: A Simple, Secure Solution for America.”