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Have you Fallen for the Five Myths of Health Care?

Thank you for this piece. As a health policy analyst, I agree with you that merely reducing the prices of drugs will not stop the rise in medical costs.
This said, your first point regarding the collection of data by US Census Bureau is incorrect. Here is the exact quote from their 2006 report: "Compared with other national surveys, the CPS ASEC's estimate of the number of people without health insurance more closely approximates the number of people who were uninsured at a specific point in time during the year than the number of people uninsured for the entire year." The report is available here: http://www.census.gov/prod/2007pubs/p60-233.pdf

According to the Congressional Budget Office, about 30m Americans lack insurance all year long, about 41m Americans lack insurance at a specific point in time during the year, and about 58m lack insurance at any time during the year -- the figure you assumed is 11 millions lower.

Here is the reference: http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=4210&type=0&sequence=1

Finally, regarding comparative health care systems, I'm sure you would agree that just like with infant mortality rates, cancer survival rates are hardly a complete measure to compare health systems properly. Our system is strong in some aspects and weak in others. The Commonwealth Fund has done several studies comparing the different aspects of health care systems around the world.
Here is a recent one: http://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/publications_show.htm?doc_id=568237

Best,
Igor Gorlach
Good article. It's so true that, repeated often enough, people believe what they hear from politicians and acquaintances. We have the best health care in the world. Politicians and interest groups will destroy it. Unless we stop them.
Great article. It really is quite amazing what the politicians can get away with saying while the American people eat it up.

However, reading the Census Bureau's report, it seems as though they only counted people as uninsured if they did not have health insurance at any point in the year.
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