Increasing spending does not always result in better performance. Dr. W. Edwards Deming highlighted excessive health care costs as one of the 7 deadly diseases affecting economic performance in the United States in the 1980's and in the 21st Century it is still a huge problem. The links here provide more details on this issue.

1. In Search Of Value: An International Comparison Of Cost, Access, And Outcomes - "The United States still spends more and fares worse on health indicators than most industrialized nations do." 1997.

2. As Good As It Should Get: Making Health Care Better In The New Millennium - " By many technical standards, American medicine is the best in the world. But it is plagued by serious and significant quality defects. "

3. U.S. Health Care Spending In An International Context - "Using the most recent data on health spending published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), we explore reasons why U.S. health spending towers over that of other countries with much older populations."

4. International Comparison of Health Care Systems Using Resource Profiles - World Health Organization study. "The approach is illustrated using a simple analysis of health care resource profiles for Denmark, France, Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the USA. Comparisons based on measures of both real resour

5. The Ticking Bomb - "Long-term care threatens to bankrupt Medicaid and the states that pay for it. The best hope for a cure lies in cutting down on the need for institutional care."

6. Employers seek out alternative health care options - by Rick Stouffer, Pittsburgh Tribune Review, Feb 2004.

7. Bitter Pills - "A little over a decade ago, Medicaid spent $5 billion a year on outpatient drugs. The tab is now an overwhelming $30 billion a year, with help from the new Medicare reform law an iffy proposition at best."

8. USA Healthcare Costs Now 16% of GDP - "The 6.9 percent growth in 2005 marks the slowest rate of growth in health spending since 1999, when growth was 6.2 percent. Health care spending reached almost $2.0 trillion in 2005, or $6,697 per person, up from $6,322 per person in 2004."

9. How Health Costs Impact the Employment Picture -