'Tis the season Every year at about this time piles of mail comes to my box asking for money. I look through the pretty envelopes, some with calendars and return address stickers, some with wrapping paper and greeting cards. Some have cleverly glued nickles or plastic membership cards so I can't recycle them without opening them. Occasionally there is an organization which has devised a new model of charity and I'm glad I looked a little further. Giving to charity is a privilege which I have because I make more money than I spend. Not everyone has that luxury. Doctors, as a profession, are much better paid than most people in the world. We may have educational debts to pay off, but eventually we usually end up in the happy minority of people who have enough stored value to take care of themselves and their families and to feel secure if they live awhile past retirement. John F. Kennedy used to like the quote from Luke (this is the passage from the New Standard Revis
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.