A History of Healthcare Costs in One Picture

Some medical services are unnecessary. Is it your first day of uncomplicated lower back pain? You don’t need an x-ray. But many patients continue to receive such services anyway, perhaps because they demand them or, perhaps, because their providers keep recommending them. But does the likelihood of unnecessary services depend on your insurance? Specifically, do Medicaid…

Here is the opening of an article I recently published in JAMA, available now online, in which I raise concerns about misguided congressional efforts to promote the use of high-value healthcare services, without doing anything to reduce the use of low value ones. Health care systems around the world are under pressure to restrain health…