Cato on Facebook
Cato on Twitter
Cato on YouTube
Cato RSS1000 Massachusetts Ave, NW
Washington, DC 20001-5403
Phone (202) 842 0200
Fax (202) 842 3490
Contact Us
November 24, 1992
Policy Analysis no. 184
Health Care Reform: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
by Michael D. Tanner
Michael Tanner is director of research at the Georgia Public Policy Foundation.
Published on November 24, 1992
PRINT PAGE
CITE THIS
Share with your friends:
While Congress has actually taken little action on health care reform, there has been no shortage of discussion on Capitol Hill. This year alone Congress has considered more than 100 bills on health care that range from two pages to more than 200 pages. In addition, the Bush administration released a 94-page outline of its health care reform program. President-elect Bill Clinton also has a health care plan. And nearly every think tank with a word processor has contributed a proposal as well.
Those proposals run the gamut--from good to bad to ugly. The ideas receiving the most discussion in the media are those that would increase the involvement of government in health care. That first group of proposals is focused on methods of financing expanded access to health insurance. They generally take one of two approaches: (1) a universal, single-payer, government-operated, tax-funded system or (2) a "play or pay" system, built around a mandate on employers. The second set of proposals attempts to accomplish the same goals without spending more money. Those proposals often focus on regulatory manipulation of the insurance industry. Most other proposals would change the behavior of health care consumers, generally through some form of tax incentive.
Michael Tanner is director of research at the Georgia Public Policy Foundation.
More by Michael D. TannerView this Policy Analysis in HTML
Share with your friends:
© 2009 The Cato Institute
Please send comments to webmaster
Get the Flash Player to see this player.
NEW ONLINE RESOURCE
Healthcare.Cato.org
Provides in-depth analysis of health care issues and reform initiatives with a wealth of resources on how individual choice and competition—not more government control—are the changes we need.
NEW BOOKS
The Beautiful Tree
An inspiring personal journey into the lives of families and teachers in the poorest communities of India, Africa, and China who have successfully created their own private schools in response to failed public education.
The Power Problem
Documents the enormous costs of America's military power, and proposes a new grand strategy that will advance U.S. national security by establishing a new set of rules governing the use of force abroad, and reaffirming the Founders' intention to restrain the president's ability to make war.
Climate of Extremes
An in-depth look at consistent, solid science on the other side of the gloom-and-doom global warming story that is rarely reported and pushed aside: that global warming is likely to be modest, and there is no apocalypse on the horizon.
SUBSCRIPTIONS
From audio recordings of the best of Cato's events to articles by world-class experts, CatoAudio, Regulation and Cato Journal offer an amazing range of quality news and analysis.