The American Health Care System

Abstract

IN a world where most industrialized countries concentrate their resources in one health insurance system that provides universal or nearly universal coverage to their populations, the United States presents an altogether different picture. Its array of uncoordinated private and public programs underscores society's profound ambivalence about whether medical care for all is a social good, of which the costs should be borne by society, or a benefit that employers should purchase for employees and their dependents, with government insurance for people outside the work force. At different times, Americans have answered this or similar questions in a variety of ways, . . .