Taming the Beloved Beast : How Medical Technology Costs Are Destroying Our Health Care System

Why health care reform must tackle the escalating cost of medical technology Technological innovation is deeply woven into the fabric of American culture, and is no less a basic feature of American health care. Medical technology saves lives and relieves suffering, and is enormously popular with the public, profitable for doctors, and a source of great wealth for industry. Yet its costs are rising at a dangerously unsustainable rate. The control of technology costs poses a terrible ethical and policy dilemma. How can we deny people what they may need to live and flourish? Yet is it not also harmful to let rising costs strangle our health care system, eventually harming everyone? In Taming the Beloved Beast , esteemed medical ethicist Daniel Callahan confronts this dilemma head-on. He argues that we can't escape it by organizational changes alone. Nothing less than a fundamental transformation of our thinking about health care is needed to achieve lasting and economically sustainable reform. The technology bubble, he contends, is beginning to burst. Callahan weighs the ethical arguments for and against limiting the use of medical technologies, and he argues that reining in health care costs requires us to change entrenched values about progress and technological innovation. Taming the Beloved Beast shows that the cost crisis is as great as that of the uninsured. Only a government-regulated universal health care system can offer the hope of managing technology and making it affordable for all.

Dan Callahan is one of the most important thinkers in health care today. Love him or hate him, you need to reckon with his ideas. Taming the Beloved Beast is a direct challenge to the central health care issue of our time--the capability and cost of medical care.--David Cutler, Harvard University

An extraordinarily clear and important contribution. Callahan argues that many new medical technologies yield only very marginal benefits relative to their high costs for the majority of those who receive them. This book should be of interest to everyone who is involved in any way with health care policy and health reform issues.--Leonard M. Fleck, Michigan State University

This is the only major book of which I am aware that places the escalating costs of medical technology at the center of the health care reform maelstrom. Callahan explains why we are facing a serious and urgent crisis in health care spending and why a cultural revolution is needed to bring about meaningful and sustainable change.--Alan B. Cohen, Boston University Health Policy Institute

Publishers Weekly

Leading medical ethicist Callahan offers a tough-love solution that may be too stark for most Americans. He argues that the most costly technologies don't necessarily make us healthier. Instead, he suggests prioritizing resources to emphasize prevention; an end to medicalizing life problems; a path to universal health care; and an abrupt end to progress and innovation regardless of cost. Callahan also suggests something more startling—given that he is aged 79: high-tech care should go to those who benefit most—the young. The message is harsh; to discount it may be harsher still. (Oct.)

"Technological innovation is deeply woven into the fabric of American culture, and is no less a basic feature of American health care. Medical technology saves lives and relieves suffering, and is enormously popular with the public, profitable for doctors, and a source of great wealth for industry. Yet its costs are rising at a dangerously unsustainable rate. The control of technology costs poses a terrible ethical and policy dilemma. How can we deny people what they may need to live and flourish? Yet is it not also harmful to let rising costs strangle our health care system, eventually harming everyone?" "In Taming the Beloved Beast, esteemed medical ethicist Daniel Callahan confronts this dilemma head-on. He argues that we can't escape it by organizational changes alone. Nothing less than a fundamental transformation of our thinking about health care is needed to achieve lasting and economically sustainable reform. The technology bubble, he contends, is beginning to burst." "Callahan weighs the ethical arguments for and against limiting the use of medical technologies, and he argues that reining in health care costs requires us to change entrenched values about progress and technological innovation. Taming the Beloved Beast shows that the cost crisis is as great as that of the uninsured. Only a government-regulated universal health care system can offer the hope of managing technology and making it affordable for all."--Résumé de l'éditeur Technological innovation is deeply woven into the fabric of American culture, and is no less a basic feature of American health care. Medical technology saves lives and relieves suffering, and is enormously popular with the public, profitable for doctors, and a source of great wealth for industry. Yet its costs are rising at a dangerously unsustainable rate. The control of technology costs poses a terrible ethical and policy dilemma. How can we deny people what they may need to live and flourish? Yet is it not also harmful to let rising costs strangle our health care system, eventually harming everyone? In Taming the Beloved Beast, esteemed medical ethicist Daniel Callahan confronts this dilemma head-on. He argues that we can't escape it by organizational changes alone. Nothing less than a fundamental transformation of our thinking about health care is needed to achieve lasting and economically sustainable reform. The technology bubble, he contends, is beginning to burst. Callahan weighs the ethical arguments for and against limiting the use of medical technologies, and he argues that reining in health care costs requires us to change entrenched values about progress and technological innovation. Taming the Beloved Beast shows that the cost crisis is as great as that of the uninsured. Only a government-regulated universal health care system can offer the hope of managing technology and making it affordable for all"--Jacket flap Medicare on the ropes Taming the beloved beast : medical technology Getting serious about costs and technology Competition : the fix that will fail The cohabitation of medicine and commerce "Medical necessity" : an all-but-useless concept Redefining "medical necessity" : from individual good to common good Getting out from under : the politics of pain.