Wednesday, Mission Hospitals’ President and CEO Ron Paulus spoke about the state of healthcare in Western North Carolina at a Leadership Asheville presentation. I walked away impressed most by the statistic that 33% of healthcare is waste. Paulus reinforced what has been said elsewhere about the current system being designed to focus more on inputs than outputs. There is so much room for improvement short of nationalizing 1/6 of the economy. Governor Pat is advocating an alternative to Community Care of North Carolina’s bureaucracy. Yes, baby steps in the right direction make so much more sense than unmeasured, colossal overhaul. You can read a little here about what a few states are doing to deal with the logical conclusion of the current system’s Ponzi-like structure.