Americans are used to crises. They have survived several in recent years. But because in a democracy national action depends on mass understanding, we attack our crises almost too late. This is particularly true when the issue develops slowly and insidiously. It is easier for the nation to unite in the face of a dramatic Pearl Harbor or a polio epidemic than before an emergency in national health. How can there be an emergency in national health? Judged by business standards the members of the medical profession should be in a prosperous state, for their services were never in higher esteem, greater demand, expanding more rapidly or paid more highly. Yet such a crisis exists. Part of it centers in the high and increasing cost of medical care to the patient. That is a great problem, as yet unsolved. But we recognize its existence, and we approach solutions—though not as