We will start by reallocating the public dollars we are currently spending on health care in a way that is more equitable, more efficient and more effective in producing health. The central problem here is not money but rather how the money is being spent. Most other industrialized nations spend far less on health care than the U.S. yet are far healthier. For example, per capita spending on health care by the United States is close to $5,800 while it is about $2200 in Japan. Life expectancy in the U.S. is 76.8 years while it is 81.2 years in Japan; infant mortality in the U.S. is 6.9 per thousand births, while it is 3.0 in Japan.

More than $17 billion is spent on health care each year in Oregon alone, yet the health status of our population is not improving. We can do better. To control costs and improve health we must challenge the 50 year old structure of the federal financing and eligibility system; clarify how we define a health "benefit;" and rethink the misaligned financial incentives and inefficient system through which health care is delivered. All of these are central objectives of the Archimedes Movement.

If we can't control cost through our reform effort, we haven't accomplished anything.