A third of the world's population contracted the influenza virus
between 1918 and 1920, and 50 million people died. Since
warnings of a potential bird-flu pandemic began circling at the
end of 2003, an estimated 332 people have died worldwide, all in
developing countries. The first open-heart surgery was performed
in 1952; today, more than half a million heart surgeries are
performed each year in the United States alone. Medical science
has arguably progressed further in the past century than it had
in all prior human history, and the pace of progress appears to
be accelerating. But there's no progress without cost. Recent
years have witnessed an explosion in health-care costs, causing
particular consternation in the United States as our polarized
political climate sharpens the debate over whether health care
should be a right or a privilege. Despite all medicine's
advancements -- or perhaps because of them -- we spend almost 4
times as much per person on health care as we did in 1970. If
trends continue, the