The critical state of medicine in the United States has been amply documented by the National Conference on Medical Costs, June 1967, and the Report of the National Advisory Commission on Health Manpower, November 1967. In spite of our wealth, science, technology, medical schools, hospitals, research facilities, and budgets; our relatively high ratio of 1 doctor per 700 people; and the exemplary quality of our best medicine, international health indices give the United States not only poor, but also falling ratings-due of course to the poor education, nutrition, socioeconomic circumstances, and health care that result in the high mortality and morbidity of 30% of our population. RETURN ON THE HEALTH DOLLAR SPENT Meaningful and accurate comparative costs of medical care are hard to come by. But the following approximations give an order of magnitude of costs that, with our relatively poor health ratings, indicate a poor return on the health dollar in the United States. In 1963 the medical care of the 45,000,000 people of Great Britain cost approximately $4,000,000,000-or $90 per person-while the medical care of our 180,000,000 people cost approximately $33,000,000,000-or $194 a person. In 1965 Great Britain spent roughly 4.5% of its Gross National Product on health care as compared to our 6%-and her per capita Gross National Product was, of course, less than ours. The United States is now spending approximately 6.3% of its annual Gross National Product of approximately $800,000,000,000, or $50,000,000,000 on annual health care. This is $250 a person per year for our 200,000,000 people.