Healthcare can be reformed if Medicare would use the data they now have and do one of several things:
cut out paying hospitals for big procedures when the annual volumes are below the literature determined standards for "safe numbers" and stop paying hospitals who have unacceptable mortality and / or infection rates. Addressing the existing hospital data could reduce a lot of expense and increase the quality of care.
I am attempting to trace the history of the excesses of our current system at http://doctorstalking.blogspot.com . Perhaps others will join in the discussion.