Will Americans Embrace Single-Payer Health Insurance: The Intractable Barriers of Inertia, Free Market and Culture

In a country that prides itself on equality of opportunity, why is there so little equality when it comes to healthcare? Why does the value of equality of opportunity not translate into social solidarity? This Article seeks answers to these questions. Risking the label of socialist, I posit that the most cost-effective, efficacious, and efficient solution to the health care mess that the United States is in is universal single-payer reform with the federal government as that payer. Part I examines the United States\u27 current climate as it affects health care reform. In Part II, this Article scrutinizes recent state health care reform legislation, specifically in California and Massachusetts. Part III evaluates current national reform efforts, while Part IV argues that though the barriers to implementing single-payer health insurance may be insurmountable at this time, it is the best answer to our health care crisis

Taming the Beast of Health Care Costs: Why Medicare Reform Alone is Not Enough

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act\u27 ( ACA ) has, as its primary goal, universal access to health insurance for all American citizens and legal residents. When fully implemented, the ACA will provide insurance to an additional 32 million people who are currently uninsured and to many millions of others who are underinsured. While universal health insurance is certainly a public health goal that this country has sought for many decades, the additional lives that will be added to the insurance rolls as well as new minimum coverage requirements mandated by the ACA will create fiscal burdens for the already expensive U.S. healthcare system. In 2009, Americans spent $2.5 trillion or 17.6 percent of gross domestic product ( GDP ) on health care, a number that is predicted to continue to rise absent serious interventions. The ever-escalating costs of health care as well as the anticipated costs of healthcare reform for the additional 32 million Americans who will be required to have health insurance by 2014 may well prove to be a crucial tipping point for an already fiscally overblown healthcare system

Can State Health Reform Initiatives Achieve Universal Coverage: Lessons from California’s Recent Failed Experiment

This article is about the struggle toward health care reform. It looks at the mandated health care insurance model as well as the experiences of Massachusetts and California