Is healthcare up to par? The U.S. government has been considering healthcare reform since the 1930s. At the time, Franklin D. Roosevelt did not press his ideas on Congress because he did not want to risk his other New Deal proposals. But other presidents, including Harry Truman in 1949 and Richard Nixon in 1971, have attempted to introduce some type of health care reform, with varying success. Why do we still need reforms? Currently, the United States is the only industrialized nation without some type of national health policy. According to a 2003 LA Times poll, "70% [of respondents] consider the current [healthcare] system unhealthy" and the President has made health care one of his top policy issues. Many states, such as Florida and Oregon, have launched their own plans to increase the availability of health care for their residents. However, whether we all agree on the type of reform needed, or whether it is actually needed, we need to address some questions. critical issues for many residents of urban centers and rural areas. Do we have enough health workers in rural areas? Is sufficient emergency care available in urban centres? Is affordable insurance coverage available to offset the cost of healthcare? Janice Castro states in The American Way of Health that “there are twice as many doctors today as there were about 20 years ago,” but today only about 30% of these doctors are General Practitioners. As the number of general practitioners declines, the competition between cities and towns to attract these doctors becomes quite intense. Some hospitals hire recruiting firms to find doctors for them, while others pay between $1500 and $2250 for recruiting booths per month annually... mid-card... for many serious illnesses, such as AIDS. These sad facts lead to the conclusion that our healthcare system certainly does not meet the needs of many rural and urban residents. The combination of a shortage of primary care physicians and uncompensated care increases pressure on already overburdened hospitals, forcing many to close or limit services to their clients, and subsequently driving up medical costs and once again increasing insurance premiums. All of this leads to an increase in the number of uninsured and underinsured Americans. These are financial and social costs that everyone ends up paying sooner or later, usually in the form of higher taxes. Maybe now is the time for the government to initiate some kind of healthcare reform aimed at rural and urban areas, instead of just considering it one more time and putting it off for another year..