The American health care industry faces more challenges than ever, due to a number of significant factors:

• The number of Americans who are underinsured or are without any type of insurance coverage at all remains staggering at more than 43 million.
• America's Baby Boomers begin turning 65 in 2011.
• The future obligations of Medicare and Medicaid are enough to cause vast problems for the federal budget for decades to come.
• Reforms are vital. The number of seniors covered by Medicare will continue to grow at an exceedingly high rate, from 43.3 million people in 2007 to 78.0 million in 2030. The recent addition of Medicare prescription coverage will add to this government program's financial challenges.
• Personalized medicine is beginning to emerge, but it remains to be seen who will be the early beneficiaries and who will pay the costs.
• Due to rising health care costs, employers large and small are straining under the financial burden of health care coverage expenses for current employees and retirees. The percentage of health costs paid by employees continues to rise.
• Physicians, other care providers, pharmaceutical manufacturers and insurers face daunting pressure from litigation and potential claims regarding denial of care.
• Few Americans focus on leading healthy lifestyles that would prevent disease and cut both the amount and the cost of medical care. A 2005 study led by researchers at Michigan State University estimated that 76% of Americans do not smoke, but only 40.1% maintain a healthy weight and only 22.2% exercise for at least 30 minutes, five times per week. Likewise, only 23.3% were found to eat the recommended amount of daily fruit and vegetable servings.
• The three biggest causes of death in the U.S. are heart disease, cancer and stroke. Nearly one-fourth of America's annual health expenditures go for treatment of these three killers.
• While only a relatively modest amount of money is spent on preventative medicine and health education, about 70% of health care funds are spent on chronic disease.
• Health spending in the U.S., at about 16.5% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2008, will grow to about 19.6% by 2016 unless drastic reforms take place. Health care spending in America accounts for a larger share of GDP than in any other major industrialized country. Despite the incredible investment America continues to make in health care, 14.5% of Americans (43.3 million people) lacked health care coverage for the entire year of 2007. A significant number of the uninsured, about 9 million, were in households with annual incomes above $75,000.
• Federal spending on Medicaid and Medicare accounted for about 21.9% of all federal government expenditures as of 2007. Medicare, the U.S. federal government's health care program for Americans 65 years or older, provided coverage to 44.8 million seniors in 2008 (up from 43.3 million the previous year). By 2030, the number of people covered will balloon to about 78.0 million due to the massive number of Baby Boomers entering retirement age. Federal Medicare expenditures, excluding patients' premiums, totaled $378.6 billion in 2006 and $432.6 billion in 2007. For 2008, that amount was projected to grow to $457.5 billion.