Open Bar for Health Costs

摘要

There's hope for medical cost control, but it won't be easy. Try telling someone with a deadly ailment that he shouldn't use a promising but expensive remedy. Still, costs have skyrocketed because demand and supply are completely divorced from the discipline of the marketplace. Americans' incentives to seek the most extensive and expensive care has risen as their share of the bill has nose-dived. In 1960 out-of-pocket payments covered 55% of total medical costs, but in 2001 only 17%. Meanwhile health insurance payouts, mostly employer-provided, are up from 21% to 35% of the total while government's share jumped from 21% to 43%.