National health expenditures, 1982.

Rapid growth in the share of the nation's gross national product devoted to health expenditure has heightened concern over the survival of government entitlement programs and has led to debate of the desirability of current methods of financing health care. In this article, the authors present the data at the heart of the issue, quantifying spending for various types of health care in 1982 and discussing the sources of funds for that spending.