Escalating health care spending: is it desirable or inevitable?

This study analyzes changing trends in U.S. health spending and concludes that although the long-term growth trend has been a good predictor of future spending, periodic differences in the growth trend are important.

An examination of factors in the withdrawal of managed care plans from the Medicare+Choice program.

Participation of health maintenance organizations (HMOs) in the Medicare+Choice program, expected to rise rapidly after passage of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, has gone in just the opposite direction. Because plans have left in such large numbers, Congress has taken remedial measures to remove restrictions and increase payments. To date these efforts have failed.