Healthcare costs

Atul Gawande has a fascinating article in the New Yorker about healthcare costs:

This is a disturbing and perhaps surprising diagnosis. Americans like to believe that, with most things, more is better. But research suggests that where medicine is concerned it may actually be worse. For example, Rochester, Minnesota, where the Mayo Clinic dominates the scene, has fantastically high levels of technological capability and quality, but its Medicare spending is in the lowest fifteen per cent of the country—$6,688 per enrollee in 2006, which is eight thousand dollars less than the figure for McAllen.

Turns out Obama read it too, so there’s hope yet for healthcare reform in this country.  The article gets bonus points for lots of mentions of my alma mater, Dartmouth College.