Rising rates of cardiac procedures in the United States and Canada: too much of a good thing?

Publicly funded Medicare programs in the United States and Canada face daunting fiscal challenges in the decades ahead. Since 1965, the US Medicare program has provided access to physicians and hospitals for elderly Americans, and the Canadian Medicare program has provided similar coverage for Canadians of all ages since 1967. Paying for growing numbers of enrollees in these Medicare programs to receive effective but expensive tests and treatments has begun to strain government budgets and the tax systems that support them. (January 24, 2006)