On Monday, I gave a talk about U.S. healthcare to 25 Turkish government members. It was the first time that I ever gave a talk through a translator. A very enjoyable experience. In preparing for the talk, I ran across two very useful health care policy resources on the web:

Health United States 2005 by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control

Health Care Industry Report by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Tidbits from the BLS report:

• Health care is the largest U.S. industry providing 13.5 million jobs in 2004 out of a total labor force of 150 million
• 40% of healthcare employees work at hospitals
• Over 85% of nonhospital health services establishments employ fewer than 20 workers.