Everyone, it seems, has a health problem. After pouring billions into the National Health Service, British people moan about dirty hospitals, long waits and wasted money. In Germany the new chancellor, Angela Merkel is under fire for suggesting changing the financing of its health system. Canada"s new Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper made a big fuss during the election about reducing the country"s lengthy medical queues. Across the rich world, affluence, aging and advancing technology are driving up health spending faster than income. But nowhere has a bigger health problem than America. Soaring medical bills are squeezing wages, swelling the ranks of the uninsured and pushing huge firms and perhaps even the government towards bankruptcy. Ford"s announcement this week that it would cut up to 30,000 jobs by 2012 was as much a sign of its "legacy" health-care costs as of the ills of the car industry. Pushed by polls that show health-care is one of his main domestic problems and by forecasts showing that the retiring baby-boomers(生育高峰期出生的人)will crush the government"s finances, George Bush is to unveil a reform plan in next week"s state-of the-union address. America"s health system is unlike any other. The Unite States spends 16% of its GDP on health, around twice the rich-country average, equivalent to $6,280 for every American each year. Yet it is the only rich country that does not guarantee universal health coverage. Thanks to an accident of history, most Americans receive health insurance through their employers, with the government picking up the bill for the poor and the elderly. This curious hybrid(混合物)certainly has its strengths. Americans have more choice than anybody else, and their health-care system is much more innovative. Europeans bills could be much higher if American medicine were not doing much of their Research and Development(R&D)for them. But there are also huge weaknesses. The one most often cited especially by foreigners is the army of uninsured. Some 46 million Americans do not have cover. In many cases that is out of choice and if they fall seriously ill, hospitals have to treat them. But it is still deeply unequal. And there are also shocking inefficiencies: by some measures, 30% of American health spending is wasted. Then there is the question of state support. Many Americans disapprove of the "socialized medicine" of Canada and Europe. In fact, even if much of the administration is done privately, around 60% of America"s health-care bill ends up being met by the government. Proportionately, the American state already spends as much on health as the OECD(Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development)average and that share is set to grow as the baby-boomers run up their Medicare bills and even more employers avoid providing health-care coverage. America is, in effect, heading towards a version of socialized medicine by default. In the author"s opinion, America"s health system is______.