New Yorker Examines Issue of the Uninsured, U.S. Health Care System

The Aug. 29 issue of the New Yorker looks at the U.S. health care system and the uninsured and discusses recent research on the situation, such as the book, "Uninsured in America."

According to the New Yorker, U.S. residents spend nearly two and a half times as much per capita on health care as people in other industrialized nations but have a lower life expectancy, lower childhood immunization rates, higher infant mortality rates and other disparities.

Attempts at creating universal coverage in the U.S. have been rejected "[s]ix times in the last century," the New Yorker reports. The magazine also examines the Bush administration's plans to address the U.S. health system, including health savings accounts (Gladwell, New Yorker, 8/29).