s, 1988). Further, the rate of price inflation for health care costs is higher than that for all items (Council of Economic Advisers, 1988). During thenext decade, health care costs are expected to consume an increasingly larger proportion of the country's gross national product.
In Canada, health care costs are also rising. Even with universal health care, and with health care quality generally equal to that in the United States, however, health care costs in Canada consume less than seven percent of that country's gross national product (Statistics Canada, 1987).
Approximately 60 percent of the American population is covered by private health care insurance programs. Most of these programs the very great majority are either fully or 3partly funded by employers, while the remainder are funded fully by the covered individuals and families. Through the Medicaid Program and other programs, the federal government funds the delivery of health care services for an additional 25 percent (approximately) of the population. When all is said and done, approximately 15 percent of the country's population about 36 million people is without any formal health care insurance coverage. Some of these people are so wealthy that health care insurance is of no concern to them, while others are simply unconcerned about anything. It is these unconcerned persons who are almost always cited by opponents of any program to extend he
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