Changes in the Costs of Treatment of Selected Illnesses, 1971-1981

This study, like two earlier studies by the author, examines the effects of changing medical technologies on medical care costs by comparing the costs of treatment of a number of common illnesses at two points in time, 1971 and 1981. While the earlier studies, covering the periods 1951-1964 and 1964-1971, showed that the main cost-raising changes had been a steep rise in the use of relatively low-cost ancillary services, such as laboratory tests and x-rays ("little-ticket" technologies), this study shows that in the period 1971-1981 the use of these technologies hardly changed but that several new and expensive technologies ("big-ticket" technologies) came into use, which raised medical care costs considerably.