The time has come for the United States to confront unsustainable health spending and make some difficult choices, argued health economist Uwe Reinhardt, PhD, during a grand rounds presentation at the 糖心vlog (AMA) in May.
For many years the United States has been able to offset growing health costs with economic growth, explained Reinhardt, a professor of political economy at Princeton University in New Jersey. (He is also a member of JAMA鈥檚 Editorial Board.) But with health spending outstripping economic growth, that is no longer an option. Now politicians, physicians, the public, and other stakeholders must confront the problem with serious debate about how much the country wants to spend on health care and how to allocate health dollars.