Assessment and Accountability

Since the end of World War II the United States has seen two revolutions in its medical care system. It is now on the threshold of a third. The first of these began in the late 1940s and early 1950s and continued through the 1960s. It can be described as the Era of Expansion and was characterized by rapid growth in hospital facilities and the number of physicians, new developments in science and technology, and the extension of insurance coverage to the majority of the population. Medical schools increased and produced an army of new specialists trained in the use . . .