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Introduction: Health Care in America: Is There a Cure?
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20336 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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6 / 1992 |
651 Words |
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Americans spend more on health care--an estimated $800 billion this year--than the GNP of all but six nations in the world. They get a lot for their money, including well-trained physicians, modern hospitals, and world-class medical technology. Yet stories abound about hospital overcharges and life savings being wiped out as a result of catastrophic illness. At the present rate of increase, the cost of U.S. health care could top $1.6 trillion by the year 2000.
Furthermore, an estimated 34 million Americans have no health insurance at all. At least another 20 million have coverage that many experts regard as inadequate. And without massive increases in payroll taxes, the Medicare program--now costing almost $100 billion annually--is projected to go bankrupt within 10 years.
In this presidential election year, Democrats and Republicans are pushing their widely different cures for America's health care problems. Do we need universal health care insurance, or is reform of the present system preferable? Is an American version of the much-admired Canadian plan possible? Is there a viable market approach that will hold down costs and provide good health care for everyone in America?
In his overview of what's right and wrong with American health care, James A. Rice reports that too many people lack adequate health insurance to cover serious illness and that health care expenditures increasingly are out of control. Although Americans generally are satisfied with the care they currently get, they are fearful about the future. The difficulty of reaching agreement as to the right solution lies in the fact that the United States is the least likely of Western democracies to turn to the national government to care for the sick. (For a perspective on Canada's health care system, see Walter W. Benjamin's "The Canadian Prescription" on page 546.)
Given all the current option, argues health care specialist Harvey I. Sloane, the Democratic legislation known as Health America would best end the crisis by guaranteeing health insurance coverage for everyone and clamping a lid on health care costs. The "play or pay" feature of the plan requires every business either to provide basic coverage for its employees or to contribute to the cost of their coverage under a new public program, which would also cover the unemployed. Because President Bush's proposed system of coordinated care does not cover everybody and does not contain cost, insists Dr. Sloane, "it is a false
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