In the United States today, medical progress is rivaled by struggles and inequalities: We have shorter life expectancies, higher rates of disease, and a greater infant mortality rate than Canada, Singapore, and a number of European countries. In Philadelphia alone, the rate of hospital inpatient admissions is more than 31 percent higher than the national average. And costs of health care continue to balloon nationwide – expenditures have risen to 18 percent of our overall economy, the highest of any country in the world. ... |