1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910785776803321

Autore

Baumol William J

Titolo

The cost disease [[electronic resource] ] : why computers get cheaper and health care doesn't / / William J. Baumol; with contributions by David de Ferranti ...[et. al.]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New Haven, : Yale University Press, 2012

ISBN

1-283-60434-5

9786613916792

0-300-18848-X

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (288 p.)

Classificazione

QX 700

Altri autori (Persone)

De FerrantiDavid M

Disciplina

338.433621

Soggetti

Medical care - United States - Cost control

Medical care, Cost of - United States

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Why Health-Care Costs Keep Rising -- 2. What Causes the Cost Disease, and Will It Persist? -- 3. The Future Has Arrived -- 4. Yes, We Can Afford It -- 5. Dark Sides of the Disease: Terrorism and Environmental Destruction -- 6. Common Misunderstandings of the Cost Disease: Cost Versus Quality and Financial Versus "Physical" Output Measures -- 7. The Cost Disease and Global Health -- 8. Hybrid Industries and the Cost Disease -- 9. Productivity Growth, Employment Allocation, and the Special Case of Business Services -- 10. Business Services in Health Care -- 11. Yes, We Can Cut Health-Care Costs Even If We Cannot Reduce Their Growth Rate -- 12. Conclusions: Where Are We Headed and What Should We Do? -- Notes -- References -- About the Authors -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

The exploding cost of health care in the United States is a source of widespread alarm. Similarly, the upward spiral of college tuition fees is cause for serious concern. In this concise and illuminating book, well-known economist William J. Baumol explores the causes of these seemingly intractable problems and offers a surprisingly simple explanation. Baumol identifies the "cost disease" as a major source of



rapidly rising costs in service sectors of the economy. Once we understand that disease, he explains, effective responses become apparent. Baumol presents his analysis with characteristic clarity, tracing the fast-rising prices of health care and education in the U.S. and other major industrial nations, then examining the underlying causes of the phenomenon, which have to do with the nature of providing labor-intensive services. The news is good, Baumol reassures, because the nature of the disease is such that society will be able to afford the rising costs.