Health Care 1976: Costs and Consequences

Excerpt

So much has been written about the relentless growth of health-care costs that the subject has become tiresome to most professionals. As a result, when physicians react with irritation against the rapid spread of regulatory measures such as utilization review, certificate-of-need laws, the new health planning law, and the like, many seem to forget that all these measures—whatever the label or apparent immediate purpose—spring from the persistence of rising health-care costs. It may be worth the risk of repetition to restate what has been happening.

Present government estimates indicate that when official data are published in February 1976, they will