Foundations for Medical Care and Corporate Health Benefits

Abstract

Any self-respecting analyst of the American health care system is constrained to begin with a gloomy statement on the high costs of medical services. Since custom also dictates a little hyperbole, it becomes mandatory for him to use such descriptions as “escalating,” “soaring,” “skyrocketing,” and “relentless inflation.” Finally, no presentation can be considered complete unless it includes an extrapolation of the rate of cost increases, with or without graph, which leads to the inevitable conclusion that by the year 2000, unless the author’s favorite remedy is applied, expenditures for health services will exceed the GNP by 50 percent. This analyst has neither the courage nor the inclination to flout tradition, so let us consider that the dire statements and predictions have all been made and get on with some history, some diagnosis, and some suggestions for therapy.