The cost of health care is one of the most serious problems facing the United States. Many factors drive health care costs, and their interrelationships are so complex that most people, whether in the health care field or not, do not understand them. Since understanding a problem is an essential step toward solving it, Annals will publish a series of 4 articles on health care costs intended as a
... [Show full abstract] touchstone for physicians and the public. The first of these articles appears in this issue.