I recently heard a nationally known leader in health system improvement speak about the current problems of the US. His principle thesis was that the American health care system will draw our country into another financial crisis within just a few years. Here are some of the facts he alluded to:

1) In 2009 the US had $14.1 trillion in debt, up 42% over the previous four years.

2) But the present value of unfunded future obligations is actually $60 trillion, including $43 trillion for Medicare, federal employee, and veteran health benefits.

3) Our nation's total economic value for all of our assets combined is $45 trillion.

4) Health economist Alain Enthoven of Stanford University: "The United States does not have decades to wait for health system reform; in 2009 about $1.15 trillion of the federal budget was spent on health care. And health care expenditures are growing 2.7% per year faster than non-health care gross domestic product. [The current] reform bill does practically nothing to slow health expenditures."

Read complete post HERE.