I was initially assigned the working title, "Pursuing Equality in Health Care for the Elderly Is Futile." I prefer to think of that particular dead end of health policy as one of listening to the wrong music for too long. Hence, this article revises the title song of the movie, Urban Cowboy, to "Looking for better health [rather than either "love" or "love of equality"] in all the wrong places.

The health policy debate in the 2008 presidential campaign year needs to move beyond the well-rehearsed pattern of the past, which focused primarily on how to expand insurance coverage to more Americans and find (or hide) the amount of money needed to pay for more health care services. Expanding the...

The controversy over aspects of the House health care legislation that have been inappropriately equated with "death panels" has obscured the real problems with these provisions.