High-technology medicine is driving up the nation' s health care costs  Recent advances in cataract surgery illustrate why this is occurring  Cataracts are a major cause of blindness, especially in elderly people  Ten years ago, cataract surgery was painful and not always effective  Thanks to the new technology used in cataract surgery, the operation now restores vision dramatically and is less expensive
These two factors have caused the number of cataract operations performed to increase greatly, which has, in turn, driven up the total amount spent on cataract surgery
The total amount spent on cataract surgery has increased because the increased number of people electing to have the surgery more than offsets the decrease in cost per operation.