creating an effective health care system
Health care looms as the next big crisis. In 1991, we spent 750 billion on health care – 12 percent of our gross national product. This was more than double the share of 30 years ago. (Canada spent only 8.5 percent of GNP on health, West Germany 8 percent . Yet both had lower infant mortality rates and longer life expectancies, and their people were far more satisfied with their systems than Americans were.) Our spending is growing so fast that without fundamental changes it will double by the year 2000, according to Secretary of Health and Human Services Louis Sullivan.