Terrible and Perverse Results

In what Andrew Sullivan calls the single-best article he's read on the health-care crisis, David Goldhill writes about his diagnosis of the health care crisis, based on a long period of research following his father's death:

Accidentally, but relentlessly, America has built a health-care system with
incentives that inexorably generate terrible and perverse results. Incentives
that emphasize health care over any other aspect of health and well-being. That
emphasize treatment over prevention. That disguise true costs. That favor
complexity, and discourage transparent competition based on price or quality.
That result in a generational pyramid scheme rather than sustainable financing.
And that—most important—remove consumers from our irreplaceable role as the
ultimate ensurer of value.