Health care cost escalation has been dramatic. In 1960, the first year such data were available, health expenditures were estimated to be $526 million dollars, or 5.1% of the US gross domestic product and $148 per capita, growing to approximately $2.2 trillion, almost $7500 per capita, by 2007. By 2016, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services estimates that health care spending in the United States will be more than $4.1 trillion, equal to about 19.6% of the gross domestic product and $12 782 per capita. Spending levels for prescription drugs have increased even more rapidly than overall health care costs, growing from $24 billion, which was 5.1% of overall health care costs in 1986, to $217 billion, more than 10.3% of health care costs in 2006.¹ The National Association of Chain Drug Stores . . . [Full Text of this Article]