Hospital costs: can they be cut?

Major surgery is often proposed for "malignant hypertrophy of national health budgets." But before proceeding with such radical intervention, we need a better understanding of the "disease." Neither the United States nor Canada has a method to determine the right percentage of GNP to spend in the health area; no index of productivity or need is available. Yet an understanding of the mechanisms of growth of health budgets will permit our using strategies to reduce the rate of health spending.