THE population of the United States is increasing at a much more rapid rate than the increase in health personnel available to maintain health services at an optimum level. At present a large number of children are receiving grossly inadequate health care. Thus, between 20% and 40% of all children suffer from one or more chronic conditions, and about 30% of these handicapping conditions could be prevented or corrected by comprehensive care during the first five years of life; comprehensive care which was continued to the age of 18 would prevent or correct 60%. We are approaching the point when the health manpower available to care for children will be increasingly strained and the number of physicians now available for health care, plus those to be graduated from the present group of medical schools as well as from the new schools being developed, will still be grossly inadequate. It has