10 essential facts about health care

If you have not yet read TIME’s recent cover story (Stephen Brill’s 26,000-word-long treatise on how medical costs are throwing the entire health care system out of whack), nobody will judge you. A feature of that magnitude feels like reading a small book rather than a long article. But the article is a worthy read, especially for an industry with so much reason to worry about the cost of health care (as opposed to, say, the cost of health insurance). Mark Ambinder of The Week distills the message of the article into 10 much more easily-digested points on the current state of affairs in health care. Chief among them is how there really is no market to speak of when it comes to health care, defensive medicine pays for itself quickly so hospitals push more of it, and insurers don’t have nearly the power to negotiate costs that so many people think they have. Depressing.