Excerpt: In 'The Lifetime Costs and Benefits of Medical Care' (NBER Working Paper 13478), David Cutler evaluates the long-term costs and benefits of one specific medical technology. The technology he examines is therapeutic surgical care after a heart attack, or revascularization, a term that encompasses both bypass surgery and angioplasty. These are relatively common and expensive medical treatments whose value has been a matter of debate in the literature.  MORE >>