Living on the banks of denial

American expectations for health care over the last 30 years have been developed during the most massive transfer of wealth into one sector that history has ever seen. American expenditures for health have been growing for the last 40 years at two and one half times the rate of inflation, which defies the law of economic gravity. Health care has grown from 6 percent of our gross domestic product (GDP) to almost 14 percent in 40 years and now accounts for one dollar out of every seven dollars spent in America. Americans pay 50 percent more per capita for health care than the average of the rest of the developed world. If US health care were a separate nation, it would have one of the largest economies in the world.