The problems of inflationary costs of health care are not new to analysts of this phenomenon, and have been addressed in the literature for some time. As the problem is not new, neither is its development. Health care costs have been escalating for decades and the historical evolution can be traced to the post World War II era. At that time federal legislation encouraged dollars to be directed toward the expanding technological industry of health care and little thought was given to cost containment. This also proved to be true of the later Medicare/Medicaid legislation and large third party payers such as Blue Cross and Blue Shield. With the responsibility of out-of-pocket payment taken away from the consumer and assumed by third party payers, the individual gradually lost track of the actual cost of health care. The final bill for treatment has become of little consequence to consumers as well as institutions because someone else is picking up the tab., Copyrights are retained by the author. Please contact Kimberly Windsor for further use of this material.