Health care creates stir among labor

Health care creates stir among labor
By James Hohmann
The Stanford Daily

Health care spending reached $1.9 trillion in 2004, the U.S. government reported last week. That number is 16 percent of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product and four times the amount spent on national defense. Although 45 million Americans are uninsured, the United States spends more on health care than other industrialized nations with universal health insurance. Public funds account for less than half of total spending in this area.

Health care is facing an impending crisis, experts say. Total out-of-pocket spending on health care reached $230 billion in 2003, the Health Affairs Journal reported. And according to the California Health Care Foundation, the amount spent per person increased 69 percent between 1993 and 2003.

Continued...