mchen@heraldsun.com; 419-6636
DURHAM -- You've heard it all in the great health care debate.
Universal health care. Medicaid expansion. Public option. Socialized medicine. Communism. Death panels.
But as much as the pro- and anti-reform sides can bicker at each other, the truth is few believe the current system actually works.
There are 47 million people without health insurance in the country. In Durham County alone, one in four adults went uninsured in 2007. And that's not counting their dependents.
Meanwhile, the country spends one-sixth of its GDP annually on health care. According to at least one report, premiums in North Carolina rose five times faster than the typical Tar Heel resident's income this decade.
So what do we want out of health care? What are the problems? How do we fix them?
At The Herald-Sun, we decided to tackle this complex topic with three stories. Today's paper will lay out the key issues with some help from local health care leaders, the Kaiser Family Foundation and The Washington Post.
Tomorrow, we'll look at how people are affected by health care, from the patient's point of view and from the doctor's.
On Tuesday, the final story in this series will look at health care as an industry, how it both boosts the local economy and hinders it.
