Some great stuff and one stunning fact

This is a fantastic overview of the problem, the political and policy background, and the proposals on the table. Required reading, in my opinion.

For an entirely different take, I highly, highly recommend This American Life's two part explainer on the health care cost problem and health insurance. Fascinating, understandable and, no lie, funny. A must listen.

An important and illumating fact, presented by conservative Marketplace commentator (and former member of the Bush administration's economic team) David Frum:

In terms of income growth and poverty reduction, Bush performed worse than any two-term president of the modern era. Even in the best year of his presidency, 2007, the typical American household still earned less after inflation than in the year 2000. The next year, 2008, American households suffered the worst income drop since record-keeping began six decades ago.

. . .

So, what went wrong? Liberals criticize the Bush tax cuts, but it's impossible to see any causation between lower taxes and the failure of incomes to gain ground. All three of the previous major tax cuts in U.S. history -- in the 1920s, 1960s, and 1980s -- were followed by very strong income growth.

The more plausible culprit is the surge in health care costs. Over the years from 2000 to 2007, the price employers paid for labor rose handsomely: on average, 25 percent. Yet for the typical worker, none of that extra cost translated into higher wages.

So, over the eight years that Bush was in office, employers paid 25% more on average for each employee, but the amount that the employees took home went up by . . . 0%. And it all went into the health care system. Anyone still think it's not broken?