A destination

Okay, so it would be neat to solve the health care problem.  What does that mean?  My first thought about 2.5 years ago was this: twice the quality of care for half of the price.  My second thought, which came today, about 2.5 years later, was this: the health care problem is solved if there is a system in place whereby the ratio between the quality of care and the cost of care increases by some percentage each year indefinitely.

Then I realized that this can be easily gamed: you can keep the ratio of marginal benefits to marginal costs high by restricting care to only the care that is most beneficial.  That isn’t what we want to do.  So I would qualify my second thought this way: the health care problem is solved if there is a system in place whereby the ratio between the quality of care and the cost of care increases by some percentage each year indefinitely, subject to the constraint that there be no artificial constraints on the supply of health care.  Now it sounds a bit complicated.  Regardless of the definition, the concept is clear: solving the health care problem means that from now until an indefinite point in the future health care will get better and costs will go down.  More fundamentally, perhaps we can see health get better and costs go down.

Lily Walked

Today.  She stood for a bit and then she walked.

A destination

Our hearts aligned we look ahead, knowing what we seek,
and so our steps have purpose now, we walk most happily.
What blessing to the wanderer a destination is,
What blessing to the man who roams a place that will be his.

School and soccer are out.

• Lily said “my-bite?” each time she saw me eating sorbet and was duly rewarded,
• Elsie laughed a loud and mischievous laugh when her nursery leader told her she was making a mess,
• Timmy got me to tell many, many stories,
• Abby had skin peeling off her face this morning from a little too much sun,
• Kate scored two goals in her last soccer game of the season,
• Gina started figuring out what summer clothes to make for the girls, and
• I got to finish the second Fablehaven.  (I’d rather be reading Bart’s book, but he’s writing too slowly.  What he’s written is already an extremely interesting read though.)

Camping

• Lily ate a lot of dirt,
• Elsie captured several ants in a bucket, refusing to let them go back to their families because “they don’t know how to get back”
• Timmy found out that red ants can sneak under your clothes and bite your back and neck,
• Abby found holes in the side of a cliff and pretended a set of junipers was a house,
• Kate did a great job on her final presentation on cardinals,
• Gina got our family ready to go camping and somehow got the house cleaned at the same time, and
• I wrote draft after draft of a paper.

Happy Mother’s Day!

• Lily shared her Popsicle with me,
• Elsie carried Lily way more than Gina and I are comfortable with,
• Timmy refused to go to soccer,
• Abby gave a great presentation on Australia,
• Kate finished writing her book on Cardinals,
• Gina combined her birthday and Mother’s Day into one fun weekend, and
• I finished reading 1st Nephi in Arabic.

Summer comes

• Lily crawled up the stairs and outside several times,
• Elsie wandered away from the family while we were in nursery and we had to go out to the parking lot to find her,
• Timmy decided that he really wants to learn to read,
• Abby made her mother a special meal on a tray,
• Kate read “Insects do the strangest things” and taught me all about how silk is made,
• Gina sewed new pillows for the kids and did some mending, and
• I broke a guitar string while tuning.