A First Step toward Stopping the Growth of Government Health Programs

The debate over expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program is divorced from the reality of who truly needs assistance and the forces that are making health insurance increasingly unaffordable. In "Sinking SCHIP: A First Step toward Stopping the Growth of Government Health Programs," Cato scholar Michael F. Cannon concludes, "Rather than expand SCHIP, Congress should (1) make private health insurance more affordable by allowing consumers and employers to purchase less expensive policies from other states, and (2) fold federal Medicaid and SCHIP funding into block grants that no longer encourage states to open taxpayer-financed health care to nonneedy families."