A doctor explaining something to a patient.
The U.S. spends more on health care than any other country and yet ranks behind 18 other industrialized nations in medically preventable deaths. The U.S. is far down the list in other important categories as well, including the average number of years citizens live a healthy life. Spending more than $1 trillion on health reform may improve these rankings — and yet as Congress and the Obama Administration struggle to agree on the nature of reform, it has become harder to understand how the current U.S. system would actually change. Here is a primer on the parties with a stake in the health-care system and how they, and you, might be affected by proposals on the table.
— with Jay Newton-Small and Alice Park