Eight Questions You Should Ask About Our Health Care System

Charles E. Phelps provides a comprehensive look at our health-care system, including how the current system evolved, how the health-care sector behaves, and a detailed analysis of “the good, the bad, and the ugly” parts of the system—from technological advances (the “good”) to variations in treatment patterns (the “bad”) to hidden costs and perverse incentives (the “ugly”). He shows that much of the cost of health care ultimately derives from our own lifestyle choices and thus that education may well be the most powerful form of health reform we can envision.

Charles E. Phelps is University Professor and Provost Emeritus at the University of Rochester. He earned his B.A. in Mathematics from Pomona College, and his M.B.A. in Hospital Administration and Ph.D. in Business Economics from the University of Chicago.