A Hard Look at Cost Containment

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Abstract
By the end of 1987, health care expenditures in the United States will have passed the half-trillion-dollar mark. According to forecasts by the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Congressional Budget Office, the estimated expenditure of $511 billion will account for 11.4 percent of the gross national product (GNP)1 , 2 — another record high. In 1980 national health expenditures accounted for 9.1 percent of the GNP, just a decade after President Richard Nixon had warned that the nation was facing a health care crisis because its expenditures totaled $75 billion, or 7.5 percent of the GNP.3 Nixon's warning was preceded and . . .