—“The Post Reports on Health Insurance” by Milton Silverman from the June 7, 1958, issue of The Saturday Evening Post
During the last ten years, health insurance practically exploded into a multi-billion-dollar giant ranking with the major businesses of the country. This year, health insurance may finally surpass life insurance in the number of people covered. By the start of 1958, there were roughly 123 million Americans — more than 70 percent of the population — with some form of hospital insurance. Last year, health insurance covered a whopping $4.2 billion, or about one-fourth of our personal-sickness bill for the year.
With the exception of television or of bootlegging during Prohibition days, probably no other peacetime industry has grown so big so fast.
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