America's Health: Recent Trends in Health Care.

The health care system in the United States has changed substantially in recent decades. We have increased our spending on health care, both in absolute terms and as a relative share of total spending. The methods of delivery of health care, technological capabilities, demographics, and the sources of payment for health care expenditures have also changed a great deal. This research memorandum examines recent trends in three sectors of our health care system the private insurance sector, Medicare, and Medicaid. The creation of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965 has had a strong influence on our health care system, and the private insurance market for health care coverage has changed considerably as well. To date, efforts to slow the rate of growth of health care costs have focused on cost containment methods to limit utilisation, and have not addressed the implications of structural changes in society and our health care market.