title: Medicare on the critical list. Understanding the etiology of the disease will help in the search for a cure.
abstract: Medicare, and its companion program Medicaid, came into being as part of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society. Their purpose was to provide the elderly with equal access to high-quality medical care. Though the goals were laudable, the magnitude of the costs and of the effects was unforeseen. As the two programs made medical care available to a large segment of the population, the demand grew. At the same time, private industry became more generous with its health insurance plans. Because of their emphasis on hospital care, the governmental and private industry plans helped push hospital prices up. Now that both sectors are finding the cost of medical care unacceptably high, Congress is proposing remedial legislation and corporations are trying alternative health care plans. These authors explore how well the maladies of Medicare may respond to the various cures that are being proposed.
mesh_terms: D005102:Health Expenditures / Q000639:trends*; D007250:Inflation, Economic / Q000639:trends; D006278:Medicare / Q000191:economics*; D014481:United States