http://healthcarecostmonitor.thehastingscenter.org/josephwhite/a-response-to-dan-brock/ Commentary and opinion on cost control as part of health care reform from The Hastings Center Fri, 12 Mar 2010 16:16:24 -0500 hourly 1 http://healthcarecostmonitor.thehastingscenter.org/josephwhite/a-response-to-dan-brock/comment-page-1/#comment-39 Fred Hapgood Thu, 17 Sep 2009 03:29:36 +0000 Iun5ouFM3BGv7mqM8ivLAg_ca672f4be7e0ae561a1eea2e169c7d28#comment-39 The idea that it is possible to develop a 21st century health care system without some rationing is beyond bizarre. Over the last hundred years our health care has changed from being about accidents and infections in the body as a whole to dealing with defects in our 200 tissues, 22,000 genes, and 100,000 proteins. It is possible that in the very long run, when most of the medical science that needs to be done has been done, dealing with those defects might indeed be cheap. But how could anybody think *for* *one* *minute* that the government has the revenues to pay the initial cost of providing such care in its initial phases -- ie, today and tomorrow -- for everyone in the nation is simply beyond my powers of imagination. A couple of days ago I got a press release from a medical sciences research institute announcing they had developed a way to specialize tissue glues so that every tissue would have its own specific glue. A good thing to have for lots of reasons, but can you imagine what this will do the price of tissue glues? Etc., etc. The idea that it is possible to develop a 21st century health care system without some rationing is beyond bizarre. Over the last hundred years our health care has changed from being about accidents and infections in the body as a whole to dealing with defects in our 200 tissues, 22,000 genes, and 100,000 proteins. It is possible that in the very long run, when most of the medical science that needs to be done has been done, dealing with those defects might indeed be cheap. But how could anybody think *for* *one* *minute* that the government has the revenues to pay the initial cost of providing such care in its initial phases — ie, today and tomorrow — for everyone in the nation is simply beyond my powers of imagination. A couple of days ago I got a press release from a medical sciences research institute announcing they had developed a way to specialize tissue glues so that every tissue would have its own specific glue. A good thing to have for lots of reasons, but can you imagine what this will do the price of tissue glues? Etc., etc.

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