The current system, rests on a precarious and complex (or should I say, chaotic?) relationship between public and private healthcare providers and the insurance industry. Sadly, reform may not be possible until Americans get much, much angrier about how badly they are being let down by the system that's supposed to serve them. A great place to start your reading is the editorial in today's New York Times. Titled "World's Best Medical Care?," it neatly summarizes not just how the US needs to do better, but also describes how badly the US is doing in relation to the rest of the developed world. The key issues: forty-five million uninsured, many more underinsured, and quality of care that varies wildly depending on the size of the patient's wallet.

What about diabetes? Surprise! The news is not good. According to the Times editorial, the US came in last in an eight-country comparison of lives lost to a number of major diseases, one of which being diabetes.

Wal-Mart Stores planned to offer generic prescription medicines at $ 4 for a 30-day supply, regardless of insurance. This was slated as a test run, in Tampa, FL, before taking the program nationwide, sometime next year. The reduced price represents a 67 percent savings over the normal retail price of the drugs.

By cutting the cost of many generic drugs to $ 4, Wal-Mart hopes to ensure that customers and associates get the medicines they need at a price they can afford. "That's a real solution for our nation's working families," says H. Lee Scott, Wal-Mart president and chief executive officer. Wal-Mart designed this program to dramatically change the way health care is provided in this country. The numbers don't lie: generic medications cost an average of nearly $30 and the average brand-name fix runs about $100. With resounding interest in the concept, Wal-Mart decided to roll out its $4 generic prescription program in Florida beginning Friday, October 6, 2006 -- nearly four months earlier than expected.

Two of my favorite things in symphony: Wal-Mart and Florida. Wal-Mart is my guilty pleasure. I'll spend hours browsing the isles and the faces. I love Florida. Really, I do. No state tax, great highways, warm winters, Disney. And now this! By the way, you know how they say imitation is the highest form of flattery? Well, Target plans to match Wal-Mart's $4 drug program. I guess everybody will have to jump on the generic drug rollback bandwagon.

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich says medical care in this country is still stuck in the dark ages. He's one of the public figures vocally pushing for health care reform and the system he would like to see would, according to him, give more choice to consumers and make better use of technology. Example: electronic prescriptions in favor of those roughly scrawled on paper by overworked doctors. Gingrich is also pushing for a more aggressive approach to stemming the rise of lifestyle-related illness such as Type 2 diabetes, which would thereby reduce the cost of health insurance, he says. He advocates, for example, routine weighing and diabetes testing for schoolchildren. "We shouldn't be worrying about whether kids will be labeled 'fat.' This is too important. Diabetes is the biggest single driver of health care costs," said Gingrich.

Gingrich made these comments last week at the Gainesville, FL, Greater Hall Chamber of Commerce health conference, at which he was the keynote speaker. "Health care is the single largest sector of the economy," stated Gingrich, "Yet for all that we spend on health care, we aren't getting the quality we deserve."