Sick Economy, Sick Healthcare System

As we went to press, the country—and to some extent, the world—was reeling from US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's proposed $700 billion Wall Street bailout. In appealing for support, Paulson stressed this was a crisis.

This sense of urgency is reminiscent of the way millions of Americans without health insurance cope with medical problems—in the emergency room, because they have no access to routine and preventive care.

And just as the cost of shoring up the financial sector would not be so astronomical if we had started treating the condition before it became life-threatening, much less would be spent on emergency care if everyone had access to routine checkups. A visit to the emergency room costs three times as much as a visit to a physician's office.1 And of course, when treatment is delayed, patient outcomes are much worse.

In 2006, we spent more than $2 trillion on healthcare in this country. That's $7,026 per person, nearly twice the per capita spend in France and Germany.2 Yet the results are unimpressive. The United States ranks 41st in infant mortality, just behind Cuba, and 46th in life expectancy.3 And, of course, 45 million Americans remain uninsured.4

Americans wonder whether we can afford to insure everyone