The Case for Real Health Care Reform
Joseph Antos | AEI Online
June 23, 2009
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Every decade or two, politicians embark on a crusade to reform the American health care system. Theodore Roosevelt pushed for national health insurance in his 1912 run for president under the Progressive party banner. More recently, Harry Truman, John Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton advanced health insurance proposals in presidential campaigns or while in office. Johnson, building on the initiatives of his predecessor, oversaw the creation of Medicare and Medicaid. Clinton's sweeping proposal for national health insurance failed, but he subsequently signed into law a small government insurance program for children.

Barack Obama has taken on the task of major health reform and, unlike his predecessors, he might succeed--in the sense that Congress could pass broad legislation. However, given the views of Congressional leadership, it is less clear that legislative success would yield a sustainable health care system based on values shared by most Americans.

The current health reform debate is the latest battle ground for the hearts and minds of the people. As we learned when that phrase was last popular, tactical victories in health reform will lead to strategic failures if the policy we pursue is fundamentally at odds with the core interests, behaviors, and beliefs of most of our fellow citizens.

Click here to view this working paper as an Adobe Acrobat PDF.

Joseph Antos is the Wilson H. Taylor Scholar in Health Care and Retirement Policy at AEI.

About the Author

 

Joseph
Antos

  • Mr. Antos's research focuses on the economics of health policy—including Medicare and broader health system reform, health care financing, health insurance regulation, and the uninsured—and federal budget policy. He has written and spoken extensively on the Medicare drug benefit and has led a team of experienced independent actuaries and cost estimators in a study to evaluate various proposals to extend health coverage to the uninsured. His work on the country’s budget crisis includes a detailed plan to achieve fiscal stability and economic growth developed in conjunction with AEI colleagues.  


    Joseph Antos is also a commissioner of the Maryland Health Services Cost Review Commission and a health adviser to the Congressional Budget Office.  Before joining AEI, Mr. Antos was Assistant Director for Health and Human Resources at the Congressional Budget Office.




    Watch Mr. Antos in an interview with Bill Erwin of the Alliance for Health Reform on "Will Health Reform Reduce the Federal Deficit?"

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