Over at Cato Doug Bandow reviews and recommends Sally Pipes’ book "The Top Ten Myths of American Health Care", while we don't agree with all of Pipes' points -- efficient prevention and Health IT programs would reduce costs -- it is a good read, here are some bits:

For instance, government health care programs are supposed to be more efficient than private medicine. Yet, Ms. Pipes notes, "tens of thousands of foreigners come to the United States every year for medical treatment. They're usually seeking advanced and sophisticated procedures that are simply unavailable — or rationed — in their home countries."

The second myth is that Americans spend too much on health care. There is no intrinsic reason why it would be better to spend an additional dollar on beer than on medicine. As Ms. Pipes points out, it makes no sense to mention costs without considering benefits. She writes: "When we talk about re-tooling our health care, we should be careful to also recognize what is good about the current system. Most everyone has a friend or relative who is alive today because of an advance — probably a very expensive advance — in medical technology or drugs."

Ms. Pipes next rebuts the claim that 46 million people lack health care. She ably deconstructs this oft-cited number: Lack of health insurance does not mean lack of health care, and the vast majority of the uninsured are either middle- to high-income people who choose not to buy insurance, noncitizens or people eligible for other government medical programs. This does not mean there are no hardship cases, as Ms. Pipes acknowledges, but the number of chronically uninsured who most need assistance is about 8 million, a much more manageable number.
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Yet another myth is that new government initiatives are necessary to cover the poor. In fact, genuinely poor Americans are covered by existing programs, though design flaws — such as low reimbursement rates — discourage doctors from accepting Medicaid patients. Given the outcome of poorer care mixed with excessive costs, Ms. Pipes notes acerbically: "The last thing these people need is more and larger government health care programs — which after four decades of trying, have proven to be incapable of providing a level of care that's comparable to what's available through the private sector."