Calls for medical care cost containment are all around us. Although the evidence that costs are too high is strong, the evidence that they are rising too quickly is much weaker. The principal cause of increasing costs appears to be the increased capabilities of medicine; the scant evidence available suggests that to date the public has wanted to pay for most of these capabilities. Effective glo...

Results of a survey conducted in the summer of 1985 of beneficiaries of the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System and a matched group of Medicaid beneficiaries concerning their access to and satisfaction with medical care services are described in this article. The Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System is an alternative to Medicaid's acute medical care coverage. The results of the s...

As significant increases in the costs of cancer drugs cause financial difficulties for many U.S. patients, some oncologists suggest that changes in pricing policies at the federal and state levels are inevitable.

The following overview knits together a collection of articles that focus on prescription drug issues as they relate to the Medicare Program. In general, the articles examine the following themes: drug cost management; drug cost estimation, and racial disparities in drug coverage and use. These commentaries provide information on private-sector experience in administering a drug benefit, models...

Healthcare costs are steadily increasing. In Switzerland, in 2007, they amounted to 10.8% of gross domestic product, of which 45.6% related to hospital care (including drug-related costs) and 10.3% to drugs.[1] Very few data exist regarding evolution of drug costs in hospitals, as they are included in the hospital financing system.[2] In our university hospital, the 32-bed adult intensive care ...

Although schizophrenia affects only about 1% of the worldwide population, it is costly to patients, their families, community care centers, hospitals, and society. International cost of illness studies show a wide variation, with annual costs ranging from Australia's $139 million US dollars (1975) to the cost in the United States of $65.2 billion US dollars (1991). Since methodology and assumpt...