Major trends in the U.S. health economy since 1950.

n engl j med 366;11 nejm.org march 15, 2012 973 public insurance have marked the past six decades of health care in the United States. As the country struggles to emerge from a multiyear financial and economic crisis, policymakers and the public have increasingly homed in on those skyrocketing health care expenditures. What lessons can be drawn from the evolution, since 1950, in the sources of payment and objects of expenditures in the health care arena?