@techreport{NBERw5750,
 title = "Are Medical Prices Declining?",
 author = "David M. Cutler and Mark McClellan and Joseph P. Newhouse and Dahlia Remler",
 institution = "National Bureau of Economic Research",
 type = "Working Paper",
 series = "Working Paper Series",
 number = "5750",
 year = "1996",
 month = "September",
 URL = "http://www.nber.org/papers/w5750",
 abstract = {We address long-standing problems in measuring health care prices by estimating two medical care price indices.  The first, a Service Price Index, prices specific medical services, as does the current CPI.  The second, a Cost of Living Index, measures the net valuation of treating a health problem.  We apply these indices to heart attack treatment between 1983 and 1994.  Because of technological change and increasing price discounts, the current CPI overstates a chain-weighted price index by three percentage points annually.  For plausible values of an additional life-year, the real Cost of Living Index fell about 1 percent annually.},
}