“If a new machine is invented, we will want to use it. It will cost more.
As long as we insist that everyone must have access to the highest quality health care, costs will always go up.
There are two ways out.”
There is a third way: A lot of those new “machines” (drugs, too) offer little or no improvement in clinical outcomes. We desperately need comparative effectiveness research to sort out the wasteful stuff from the good. This is one reason why places like Canada, France, Israel, Japan, and Hawaii have better health outcomes at lower cost: The government restricts access to new technologies until they are actually shown to work!
Unfortunately some Republicans are campaigning to eliminate the kind of research needed to determine this, while at the same time screaming that health care costs too much. Their hypocrisy is costing us twice — by higher health care costs, and by not promoting the best health care.