The Evolution of National Health Expenditures

A unique historical review that traces health spending from ancient times to the present and forecasts 21st century trends.

There are many histories of medicine, yet none that assess the dynamics of expenditures over decades and centuries. Economists have not yet addressed the magnitude of the transformation that occurred during the twentieth century as payments shifted from solo physician practices to health systems, nor the legacy effects of social practices accumulated over millennia that will shape health spending in the twenty-first.