We <3 HMO's

Malcolm Gladwell has an excellent article in the latest New Yorker in which he explains how, contrary to popular belief, the American health care system is much more expensive and inefficient than in industrialized countries which provide universal healthcare. Yet, we have an almost religious-like devotion to it. This sentence sums it up:

A country that displays an almost ruthless commitment to efficiency and performance in every aspect of its economy – a country that switched to Japanese cars the moment they were more reliable, and to Chinese T-shirts the moment they became five cents cheaper – has loyally stuck with a health care system that leaves its citizenry pulling out their teeth with pliers.