Opinion: Can 2014 be the year of real healthcare innovation?

No matter how optimistic and hopeful you might be by nature, it's difficult to approach the issue of health care in the United States without a sense of foreboding. And confusion. And frustration. And maybe a little anger. The issue of affordable, reasonable, pragmatic health care is the defining issue of our times. In the U. S. in 1969, we spent about 5.0% of GDP on healthcare; today that number is closer to 18.0%. We spend at least half again as much per capita on health care as any other developed country, yet our health outcomes lag significantly behind those countries that spend less.