Patients, health economists and even some doctors agree: Our health care system is a breathtakingly expensive, bewildering mess...

One in four Texas residents has no health insurance. Parkland Hospital spent more than $410 million last year treating the uninsured...

Health care costs are breaking budgets across the world, spurring cost-cutting ideas ranging from better information technology to rationing. But no one else spends as much as the United States, where health care absorbs $2.2 trillion a year, or more than 16 percent of the economy...

If consumers pay more for their own health care, they are expected to be more critical shoppers. Ultimately, consumers will ration their own health care consumption instead of having insurers, employers or government do it for them.

Len Nichols, a health economist who worked on the Clinton administration's failed 1994 health care initiative, says all of the cost-saving ideas are needed, regardless of ideology.

"This beast is so big, it's been untamed for so long, we need every tool we can get," he said...

For the complete article, please visit The Dallas Morning News website.