There was a good front page article in yesterday’s Washington Post on the history of advances in medical science and technology.  The conclusion:  Although the costs of treating many serious medical conditions has risen dramatically over the course of the last few decades, most of these cost increases have come hand-in-hand with significant improvements in health outcomes.  Take the article’s discussion of the evolving treatment of heart attacks:

“When I was in medical school, about all we had to offer was oxygen,…

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In the March 2009 issue of the Atlantic, Virginia Postrel recounts her recent successful battle with breast cancer and notes that she may not have had such a happy outcome if she lived in New Zealand. Following surgery to remove several tumors, Postrel’s doctors prescribed the monoclonal antibody Herceptin, which regulates cell division and can keep some cancerous cells from dividing uncontrollably. Herceptin has a 95 percent success rate in early-stage cancers like Postrel’s. And, although it’s been just a short…

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