
Author: The Commonwealth Fund
Date of publication: June 2003
Summary: Rising health care costs are of concern to policymakers, employers, health care leaders, and insured and uninsured Americans alike. The U.S. has relied on a mixed public–private system of insurance, managed care, and market competition to shape the health care system. Yet, the U.S. has the highest health care spending per capita in the world, and during the 1990s health spending in the U.S. rose faster than in other industrialized nations.