The United States drastically outspends other countries on health care, yet has worse overall outcomes and leaves millions at risk of losing their homes or even lives for lack of insurance.
Championed by President Barack Obama and villified by Republicans, the health care reform bill that passed the Congress Sunday extends insurance to 95 percent of Americans by covering an additional 32 million people and rein in spiraling costs.
Here are some facts about the existing state of the health care system which has been described as "an administrative monstrosity."
-The United States is the only major industrialized nation which does not offer some form of universal health care. The government does provide coverage to the elderly and disabled under Medicare, some of the very poor under Medicaid, government workers and military veterans.
-Some 15.4 percent of the US population - or 46.3 million people - did not have health insurance in 2008, according to the Census Bureau. Since about 10 million of those are not US citizens, the most commonly cited number is 36 million people.
-Nearly 45,000 people die every year in the United States because they don't have health insurance, a recent study by Harvard University researchers found.
-Premiums for health insurance provided by employers have doubled since 2000 and most workers are spending more out of pocket even as the services covered shrink.
-Medical bills contribute to more than half of personal bankruptcies and homes lost to foreclosure.
-Until now, insurance companies have been able to deny or even revoke coverage for pre-existing conditions like heart disease, cancer or - in nine states - injuries sustained from domestic violence.
-Total health care spending accounted for 2.2 trillion dollars in 2007, or 16.2 percent of US GDP. That's five percentage points more than second-ranking France and nearly twice the proportion spent by the United Kingdom and Japan.
-Per capita spending in the United States also ranks far ahead of other industrialized nations at 7,290 dollars in 2007. That's more than 2,500 dollars more per person than Norway, which ranks second, and about 2.5 times the OECD average of 2,984 dollars per person.
-Health care spending is expected to eat up 25 percent of the US economy by 2025, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
-While the United States excels in areas such as cancer care, it lags behind other industrialized nations in avoidable hospital admissions for treatable conditions like asthma and diabetes, the OECD found. Disparities also lead to high infant mortality rates and a shortened life expectancy.
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