High and Rising Health Care Costs. Part 2: Technologic Innovation

High and rising health care costs. Part 2: technologic innovation.

Technologic innovation, in combination with weak cost-containment measures, is a major factor in high and rising health care costs. Evidence suggests that improved health care technologies generally increase rather than reduce health care expenditures. Greater availability of such technologies as magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography, coronary artery bypass graft, angioplasty, cardiac...

High and rising health care costs. Part 3: the role of health care providers.

One commonly held explanation for high and rising health care costs in the United States points to the market power of health care providers. This third article of a 4-part series examines how the prices and quantities of health care services interact to influence health care expenditures. The article also reviews cost-containment strategies that are designed to reduce prices and quantities of ...

High and rising health care costs. Part 4: can costs be controlled while preserving quality?

Several interrelated strategies involving physician leadership and participation have been proposed to contain health care costs while preserving or improving quality. These include programs targeting the 10% of the population that incurs 70% of health care expenditures, disease management programs to prevent costly complications of chronic conditions, efforts to reduce medical errors, the stre...

Rising health care costs.

High and rising health care costs. Part 1: seeking an explanation.

The United States has the most expensive health care system in the world, with per capita health expenditures far above those of any other nation. For many years, U.S. health care expenditures have been growing above the overall rate of inflation in the economy. A few experts have argued that high and rising costs are not such a serious problem. Most observers disagree with this view, pointing ...