Various prevalent trends in American medicine are on a collision course: health economics, escalating expenses for pharmaceutics and diagnostic equipment and finally the litigatious society, in which human error is unacceptable (or at least an excellent source of income for lawyers). In the long term, even our affluent society can not afford to exceed 12% of its gross domestic product on health care. However, the momentum increases and the demands are growing: our population keeps aging and high-technology medicine keeps sicker people alive longer. Finally, if we succeed in decreasing morbidity from cardiovascular and infectious diseases, the remaining major health problem will be cancer. Apart from its devastating effect on the individual and the family, this is an expensive disease and no cheap, silver bullet is in sight.
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