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costs, government, business, and insurers are striving to decrease health care utilization. At the same time, many Americans lack adequate access to health care services. In this charged atmosphere, Mark Blumberg's concer about the appropriate application of epidemiologic research to health policy1 is both legitimate and important. I share with Dr. Blumberg the fundamental goal of bringing the scientific method to bear on available data to better inform public and private decisions in health care. Dr. Blumberg is correct in his assertion that there are differences in morbidity between regions and cities in the United States and
John E. Wennberg (Wed,) studied this question.