This thread is here instead of in the health forum because it is intended to be the landing spot for the debate concerning our current health care system, which I'm sure most of us agree is broken to some extent. The broken nature of which is contributing significantly to the budgetary problems our country currently faces.
To that end, I bring a slightly different look at the problem. Instead of looking at "how do we pay for it", this piece from Time magazine takes a look at "why is it so expensive to begin with".
While it does lean a bit left in the conclusions it makes at the end concerning Medicare and a single payer system, I think it takes a good deep look into the world of medical charges. It helps answer some of the questions I had when I was looking at the bills coming out of my wife's two trips to the ER last year for kidney stones. It is a lengthy read, but it is worth it whether you are left or right.