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Previous Volume 356:314-315 January 18, 2007 Number 3 Next

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By David A. Hyman. 138 pp., illustrated. Washington, DC, Cato Institute, 2006. $14.95 (cloth); $9.95 (paper). ISBN 978-1-930865-90-7 (cloth); 978-1-930865-92-1 (paper).

Toward the end of Goethe's Faust (Part 1), Mephistopheles rejects Faust's demand that the devil rescue Gretchen, saying, "Who was it that plunged her into ruin? I or you?" In a provocative and penetrating satire, Medicare Meets Mephistopheles, David Hyman trenchantly argues that Medicare was flawed from its inception in a devilish plot to "corrupt the American Republic" and plunge the country into ruin.

Though bathed in satire, the issues Hyman raises are serious and command our attention. He challenges Medicare's proponents to consider whether the structural flaws that he so gleefully exposes are, dare I say it, beyond redemption. . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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