Faculty Bibliography

Arthur Caplan discusses what he calls the myth in health care, the notion that health care costs are high because America spends too much on expensive medical care for old people who are terminally ill. He presents a study by James D. Lubitz and Gerald F. Riley which negates this theory

James D. Lubitz and Gerald F. Riley, who are at the Health Care Financing Administration in Baltimore, the outfit that runs the federal Medicare program, believe the figures about the cost of health care for those in the last year of life are often misinterpreted or exaggerated

In rich nations, diarrhea is a vaguely amusing, embarrassing disorder associated with eating and drinking too much. But, as David Werner makes clear in a short but important article in the April issue of the journal Pediatrics, in poor countries, diarrhea is no joke

In rich nations, diarrhea is a vaguely amusing, embarrassing disorder associated with eating and drinking too much. But, as David Werner makes clear in a short but important article in the April issue of the journal Pediatrics, in poor countries diarrhea is no joke

Perhaps the most important tool we can borrow from our neighbors is the use of fixed overall budgets. Fixed budgets do have a price. They are likely to restrict access to specialists and expensive technology. But the tradeoff in terms of greater access to primary care and preventative services, which each of these countries displays, seems worth it. For until these countries decided to place caps on their health-care budgets, they were burdened, as we continue to be, with spiraling inflation in prices and cost. The rest of the industrialized world knows that cost containment requires governments to set fixed caps on how much money can be spent on health care each year

Perhaps the most important tool we can borrow from our neighbors is the use of fixed overall budgets. Fixed budgets do have a price. They are likely to restrict access to specialists and expensive technology. But the trade-off in terms of greater access to primary care and preventive services, which each of these countries displays, seems worth it. For until these countries decided to place caps on their health care budgets, they were burdened, as we continue to be, with spiraling inflation in prices and cost. The rest of the industrialized world knows that cost containment requires governments to set fixed caps on how much money can be spent on health care each year