[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] lets continue our second panel, and we thank our panelists for being here and for sitting through the first panel. Before i introduce our panelists, let me to say a few words. I think sometimes it is important to take a 30,000foot look at the systems under which we live. And we dont do that often enough. We deal with crisis by crisis. In my view, we are living with the Healthcare System which is broken and which is dysfunctional. We spend twice as much per capita on health care than any other country on earth. 13,000 every year, which is unsustainable. And yet despite that, 85 million americans are uninsured or underinsured. We are seeing in many parts of this country, unbelievably, above and beyond covid a decline in our life expectancy. We have half a million americanv whoever your experience bankruptcy which is related to the medical debt that they have.
The biggest thing it had to do with the project was where would the interstate go. The engineers worked with the possibility for a long time of running the interstate over the top of the dam. That would have required a larger dam, of course. But all of this is con verveg at the same time. The interstate planners are making their plans for which path the interstate is going to ta take. The decision to run it through Summit County the final decision wasnt made until 1960. By that time, denvers engineering of the dam had moved on. So they ended up running it along the base of the dam rather than on it. It did have some affect. Like i said, by the time the interstate was designated, it was no longer really an issue. It was essentially a water project. Yes. I think we have time for one more question. Which one of you wants to ask the question . Flip a coin. I wanted to know your guesstimate on Vacation Land of the huge traffic jams we see now on 70. How is that going to impact our economy a
Transport like what eisenhower had, which was one of the things that apparently convinced him of the need for a system of defense highways. Im not aware that there was any use of interstate 70 for those purposes. It seems to have been, as far as the evidence i have been able to find. There was a lot of talk at those times about the highways being defense highways. The official name for them, for the interstate system when it was created in 1956, the National System of interstate and defense highways. Thank you. Two questions. I believe i read or heard that the interstate through Glenwood Canyon cost more than the entire rest of the interstate 70 cost total. I dont know if thats true. But i frankly would not be surprised at all. The cost as you probably know it kept ballooning as the design changed, as they ran into as Highway Builders always do, into unexpected geological obstacles. I would not be surprised, but i dont know the dollar values. Another question about president eisenhower
With gabriel sherman, author of the loudest voice this the room. And we wrap up at 11 p. M. Eastern with Christopher Harmon and a citizens guide to terrorism and counterterrorism. That all happens tonight on cspan2s booktv. Robert field talks about the long history of government involvement in the Health Care System. Four key sectors pharmaceuticals, hospitals, the medical profession and private insurance were built up by the federal government, and he argues that this history must be understood before the possibilities of meaningful reform can be realized. This is about an hour. [applause] thank you, dan. My book, which was released in november, has a title with a slight sense of irony. Free market is this in goat quotes, and i talk about how the free market which we think of as the quintessential op is sit of the government was temperature opposite of the government was actually created by the government. This is clearly a pushback against some of the talk we hear recently to keep th
Thank you, dan. My book which was released in november has a title with a slight sense of irony, free market is in quotes and a talk about how the free market which we think of as the quintessential opposite of the government was created by the government. This is clearly a pushback against some of the talk we hear recently to keep the government out of health care, keep the government out of my medicare, is the government up to the task of reforming the Health Care System . After the shaky roll out of the Insurance Exchange is, is it up to the task of really anything . I started this book in 2008 a four there was an obamacare or even a president obama, but it has a lot to say about the Affordable Care act and white is the way it is and the content. So it was in a way fortuitous that events play themselves out as they did so that i can really lead up to whats happening today, which is very much part of the historical picture. I start out with the conventional view, or at least the wide