Health Care

Interesting post by Ezra Klein on "the best health care system in the world." Some number-crunching involved, since it's Klein, but worth reading. I started crunching a couple of numbers myself: the U.S. population is roughly 310 million, of which 48 million do not have health insurance. My calculator says that's about 15.5%. Yes, you read it right: 15.5%. That's staggering. I'd like to call attention to one of the questions Klein finishes off with:

Whenever I read posts like Pollack's, I'm reminded of something David Frum wrote in his book Comeback. "Who agreed that conservatives should defend the dysfunctional American health care system from all criticism?" He asked. "Who volunteered to take the bullet for every crummy HMO and overpriced surgeon in the country? Who decided that it was okay with us for tens of millions of Americans to lack health care coverage?"

15.5%