Periodic Fluctuations:
The demand for health care and the benefits it brings have continued,
rarely abated, over the past half century. The demand for health care is
expected to continue to increase, accounting for a significantly larger
proportion of the national economy. But as the importance of health care
and its costs has grown, systemic problems affecting different
subgroups of the population have become intertwined with the
economic forces affecting access, costs, and outcomes.