In 2009 the Pentagon realised that a breach of the Nunn-McCurdy rules on over-budget defence-procurement programmes was inevitable, because costs would exceed the original baseline by more than 50%.
We may not be able to stem baseline tuition inflation, but technology can cut costs in a host of other areas ranging from housing to poorly informed decisions.
The technology is transparent, likely with low running costs and wide-area effectiveness, once baseline infrastructure is in place across devices, communications, and trained people.
To make the debate on NHS reform comprehensible, and the claims testable against evidence, what we need is some form of baseline scenario that explains the level of productivity improvement needed to keep health costs below double their present cost.