For a few months I have been noticing that several of my friends and acquaintances, as well as all sorts of famous people, have been filming themselves dumping ice water over their heads and then talking a little bit about Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Then they suggest that I donate money to the ALS Association . It has been a particularly hot summer, which partly explains the popularity of the phenomenon, and mostly all of these people look adorable soaking wet and spluttering, which is an added bonus. The ALS Association, and the British version, the Motor Neurone Disease Association, have made boatloads of money off of the challenge. Originally the idea was that a person would challenge another person to donate money for ALS research and if they hadn't done so in 24 hours, they would dump a bucket of ice water over their head. It turns out that people like dumping ice buckets over their heads (at least this summer) and posting video clips of it and also like ...
The cost of health care in the US is higher than anywhere else in the world, and yet we are not healthier than our peer nations. In fact, in terms of such measures as infant mortality and life span, we don't measure up. Why is this? Many people involved in providing or receiving care have some pretty good ideas about what costs so much, and what we can do to reduce costs and improve quality. Sharing these stories is an important step in creating affordable universal health care.