national product in 1950 to 10.5 percent (or $322 billion) in 1982. On a per capita basis, that amounts to a fivefold increase (in constant dollars). He blames the cost explosion on the rapid "monetariza- tion" of medical care.
Before World War 11,medicine in the United States was "quasi- eleemosynary": Hospitals relied heavily on charitable donations, young interns worked at hospitals in return for their room and board, and physicians who sought admitting privileges at a...