title: Health care cost containment: an overview of policy options.
abstract: While health care has become one of the leading policy concerns of the American public, cost containment has emerged as the most prominent underlying factor. Components of health care cost escalation include societal problems, consumer demand, an aging population, the technology explosion, administrative inefficiencies, the malpractice crisis, fraud and abuse, the lack of health promotion and disease prevention, the rising number of uninsured, and regulatory issues. The three major categories of health reform proposals, with characteristic cost containment features, are discussed. A comprehensive listing of available cost containment interventions is summarized in ten categories.
authors.affiliation: Unisys Corporation Government Systems Group, Louisiana Medicaid Program and Emergency Medicine Residency, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge.
authors.forename: G A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Pane
authors.forename: E H
authors.initials: EH
authors.lastname: Taliaferro
mesh_terms: D003363:Cost Control / Q000379:methods; D017048:Health Care Costs; D018166:Health Care Reform / Q000191:economics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D006291:Health Policy / Q000191:economics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence; D006801:Humans; D014481:United States