The positive drum beat has caught up with the negative one. But on an individual basis, most seniors still can't answer the big question: 'What does it mean for me?

If health insurance was working properly, the sicker you are, the more protection you would have. It seems to be working backwards, the sicker you are, the more trouble you have paying bills.

The good news is the rate of increase in health care costs is down, ... The bad news is that's the only good news.

There are lots of things on the table, but there's nothing that will have a significant impact on the rate of increase of health care costs.

I've invested a lot here.

It is low-wage workers who are being hurt the most by the steady drip, drip, drip of coverage draining out of the employer-based health insurance system.

We want more than just a ballpark. Our goal is to create a whole district and a destination.

The cost of health care is going up much faster than people's wages. Families are paying about (on average) $1,000 more now just for health care premiums than they were five years ago.

The point is that when they talk about quality of health care, patients mean something entirely different than experts do. They're not talking about numbers or outcomes but about their own human experience, which is a combination of cost, paperwork and what I'll call the hassle factor, the impersonal nature of the care.

On the destination list of Washington, ... you'll have the MCI Center area, Georgetown and, now, boom, the South Capitol Street ballpark area.

I wouldn't leave if I thought that the sky was falling, ... I think the foundation is there. The institution is set up.

A slow but perceptible deterioration of our employer-based (health insurance) system.

Andrew Altman full employment act.

There have been temporary successes, but always health care costs have bounced back with a vengeance.