This is a guest post by Dr. Joshua Freeman, a family physician, educator and author of the blog, Medicine and Social Justice. As we wait to see if the President’s health reform bill passes, it is a good time to review the actual core reasons why we need health reform. I believe that this will help ground us, and allow us to evaluate both whatever finally passes, and help us ignore the political posturing and maneuvering that distract us from them.

This is a guest post from Dr. Doug Iliff, a family physician who practices in Topeka, KS. He writes about six myths that are framing the health care debate such as rationing care and consumer empowerment. Myth 1: President Obama is trying to pull a fast one. He wants to ration care based on medical evidence. In fact, medical services are rationed now in any number of ways - including, but not limited to, ability to pay, insurance approval, location, transportation, attitudes of relatives and competence of medical professionals.

There's a lot of sensationalism in health care reform language: death panels, rationing care, government-run health care. These are all examples of sensationalism in the health care reform debate that's been causing a lot of angst. The thing is, they're based on misinformation.

I've read and heard lately that health care reform is dead, but I have a hard time believing this. Most people I talk to say that the anticipated outcomes of health care reform are still relevant. There are currently nearly 15 million unemployed Americans right now and more layoffs are expected each month.

Should there be more transparency in the health care reform debate? If so, did the Health Care Summit make a difference?

Charlie Rose is having a panel discussion about today's Health Care Summit. Members of the panel include: Dona Shalala, Bill Frist, Joseph Califano, Mark Halpern, and Ezra Klein.

A recent report published by Reuters indicates that the line between the haves and the have-nots is expanding beyond just those that have health insurance. The article describes disparities in where doctors locate and illustrates the point with the scenario of White Plains, NY. This city has doctors a plenty lining up to provide care to a population of people with the highest national income (approximately $77,000 per year). This is not the case for economically struggling Bakersfield, CA. The article describes how diabetic patients have to take a 2-hour bus ride to Fresno to get the care they need.