Every now and again, Toolbox snags an article that every American should read. This week is one of those times, so after you read Introduction and History of Health Insurance in the United States, by Chandra Westergaard (Crowell & Moring), pass it along. Yeah, we're supposedly having a national debate on health care/insurance, but 95% of us know nothing about how it got the way it is or how it works or even what coverage we have. And Toolbox pleads guilty on that score — the last time it had to re-up its insurance, it might as well have been trying to order from a restaurant menu written in Aramaic.

Anyway, Westergaard does yeoman work in explaining how we got the system we have, and what it's all about. She divides her work into separate discussions of history of health insurance in the U.S.; different types of health insurance (private; indemnity and managed care, with its HMOs, PPOs, POS's and other Aramaic-like acronyms and symbols); and major federal and state laws regulating health insurance. Of course, this last section may need some updating in the near future, but as Westergaard notes, one thing will not change: "The system of health insurance regulation in the United States is complex." Thus, approach each question you have about health insurance by asking:

• How is the health benefit product regulated?
• How is the health benefit product designed?
• How is the health benefit product funded?

If the answers are in Aramaic, well then you need a lawyer. Hmmm.