The U.S. government is involved in health care in various ways that include (1) providing services to veterans, (2) paying for care received by Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, (3) assuring quality through regulatory activity, (4) financing the discovery of medical breakthroughs, and (5) training members of the health workforce and assuring that the nation has an adequate supply of them. With the aging of the population, the role of the government in these endeavors will increase. This essay considers ways in which the health care of tomorrow will be affected by the intermingling of factors such as demography, epidemiology, economics, technology, globalization, and individual health behavior.
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