But employers loved it. They were able to pay less for a few years.
Medical inflation is back, besting managed care at the very thing it was supposed to solve.
In the early '90s, we saw these kinds of cost increases, but we had the alternative of managed care as a low-cost option. Some say managed care failed. Others say Americans rejected it without giving it enough of a chance. Either way, experts agree that no one now has a good idea how to control costs without it. An advisory panel last week said rapidly rising spending means Medicare's hospital trust fund will go broke four years earlier than expected, in 2021.