As the national health care reform debate has unfolded this past year, we have occasionally tried to point our readers towards good sources for making sense of these complicated issues. This post from  the summer suggested some especially useful magazine articles, blogs, and books on health care reform, while this famous  flow chart (now updated) from Donkeylicious.com tried to summarize the major health care proposals in three easy steps.  We’ve also looked specifically at the debate over comparative effectiveness research and the potential expansion of Medicaid coverage for uninsured low-income adults.

Earlier this month, the radio documentary program This American Life aired two full one-hour programs devoted entirely to health care reform. As usual, the programs were insightful, entertaining, and thought-provoking. The first program focused primarily on trying to understand the exorbitant cost of the American health care system, with segments that looked at the role that doctors, consumers, and insurance companies play in keeping costs rising, even while more, and more expensive, care does not ensure better health outcomes.  The second episode focused on health insurance, and included segments tracing the history of the American employer-based health insurance system and looking at why more competition between insurers may not lower health insurance costs. Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re anything like me or most anyone I know, chances are you’ve spent a good part of the last year reading and listening to stories about “collateral debt obligations” and “credit default swaps” and “toxic assets” and “zombie banks” and the like, with only a partial and fleeting understanding of what any of these things are, much less what they all mean. A recent episode of the NPR program This American Life titled “Bad Bank” does about as good a job as anything I’ve come across in explaining the great, big hairy mess that is threatening the U.S. banking industry and the whole global economy  in straightforward, understandable, and yes, entertaining terms. From the show’s introduction:

Alex [Bloomberg] and Adam [Davidson] walk us step by step through the complications of the US government buying up bad assets from banks, and explain why, when it comes to footing the bill, the government might just prefer to not be in charge of the very banks it is having taxpayers bailout.  From a dollhouse, to a hypothetical bank worth tens of dollars, to the trillions of dollars being spent to keep banks afloat, Alex and Adam talk economy, and where we might be headed.

You can listen to the full 40-minute segment online or download it as a podcast for $0.95.