Drew Altman

The cost of health care is going up much faster than people's wages. Families are paying about (on average) $1,000 read more

The cost of health care is going up much faster than people's wages. Families are paying about (on average) $1,000 more now just for health care premiums than they were five years ago.

There have been temporary successes, but always health care costs have bounced back with a vengeance.

There have been temporary successes, but always health care costs have bounced back with a vengeance.

The point is that when they talk about quality of health care, patients mean something entirely different than experts do. read more

The point is that when they talk about quality of health care, patients mean something entirely different than experts do. They're not talking about numbers or outcomes but about their own human experience, which is a combination of cost, paperwork and what I'll call the hassle factor, the impersonal nature of the care.

There are lots of things on the table, but there's nothing that will have a significant impact on the rate read more

There are lots of things on the table, but there's nothing that will have a significant impact on the rate of increase of health care costs.

This is a slow but perceptible fraying of our employment-based system, ... what I call the drip, drip, drip (of read more

This is a slow but perceptible fraying of our employment-based system, ... what I call the drip, drip, drip (of health coverage).