1. Health care should be cheap.

We would like cheap health care; unfortunately many of the things we want when we get sick require expensive technology and expertise. We also want to feel well and look good so we spend money on things that don't necessarily make us live longer but make us feel better. Should we spend that money on luxury cars or entertainment? In the 1950s health care was cheap. If you had a bad arthritic hip you got a cane. Nowadays you get a new hip.

2. Europeans have a better and cheaper government-provided health system.

Every country has a different system. The quality of health care varies greatly. Affluent Europeans use private health care options.

3. Americans spend more money on health care but have worse outcomes than other developed countries.

Most Americans get some of the best health care in the world. For others it is very poor, unacceptably poor in my opinion. Health outcomes are often a function of lifestyles. Russians drink too much and Americans eat too much.

4. The uninsured are poor.

Many are, but many simply gamble. In 2004, 37 percent of the uninsured earned over 400 percent of the poverty level.

5. We can insure everyone, increase quality and reduce costs.

This is not merely an illusion, this is a delusion.

6. We shouldn't force those who can afford it to be insured.

The problem is that the uninsured not only raise the cost of insurance by reducing the insurance pool but they get health care anyway. If someone goes out and buys a motorcycle instead of health insurance and wraps the bike around a tree, the insureds or taxpayers often indirectly pay the bills.

7. We should keep the government out of health care.

Too late. The government is deeply enmeshed in health care. It is difficult to estimate how much; perhaps more than 50 percent. You can't just count direct government expenditures such as Medicaid; myriad regulations affect health care.

8. Seniors should worry about death panels.

Their real worry is that the plans involve a massive redistribution away from seniors. Benefits, not merely waste, will be cut.

9. We need more primary doctors and fewer specialists.

We need more doctors including specialists. Reducing the number of specialists reduces costs but at the cost of longer waits. My brother lives in Rome; a friend's wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was going to be a two-year wait to see a specialist. They went to a private specialist in Bologna.

10. Europeans spend less because they have a single payer system.

Not really. They don't have a malpractice lottery. Texas has proved you can lower costs with a more rational malpractice system. Europeans also have longer waits and less technology. We need standardized insurance contracts and forms to reduce costs.

11. Insurance companies' profits cause high costs.

A surprising number of health insurance companies are actually not-for-profit. So this is a bit of demagoguery.

12. Insurance companies shouldn't reject people for pre-existing conditions.

To do this you must force everyone who can afford it to buy insurance; otherwise people will buy insurance only after they get sick. Can you buy auto insurance only after you have an accident?

13. We cannot afford to give the poor health care. We already do, but we can provide it in a more rational manner. We cannot give everyone identical coverage without it busting the budget. Instantly giving 40 million people coverage will cause chaos in the short run.

Health care may be a basic right but the only way to give everyone the same level of care is to give everyone mediocre care. We should first finance low-cost health clinics for the poor and provide everyone with catastrophic insurance so that people aren't wiped out when a family member becomes ill.

14. We need to have a public option in order to increase competition.

There are hundreds of health insurance companies. They should be allowed to operate across state lines. Giving the federal government a bigger market share when it is already the dominant player and makes the rules hardly makes sense.

Thomas S. Zorn is the George B. Cook/Ameritas professor of finance at the College of Business, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.