The health care crisis--how we got there

There are upward pressures on the medical economy that we can do little to control. Among these are general inflationary factors, high technology costs, and care for a population ever increasing in age. Nothing in the way of reform is likely to come out of Washington other than another bureaucratic scheme which will add further confusion and put in place another multilayered system. Many of the wrongs I have cited can and should be corrected. By changing those wrongs into rights we can preserve the best of our present system, including two American icons: fee-for-service and freedom-of-choice of physician. Let us not swap the devil for the witch.