The Future of the American Health Care System

To the Editor: Both Shortell and McNerney 1 and Kinzer 2 in their Sounding Board articles (Feb. 15 issue) dismiss too quickly the possibility of a universal health care plan. One feasible route to this elusive goal has so far largely escaped attention: expand the Medicare program to include all Amer...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe New England journal of medicine Vol. 323; no. 11; pp. 752 - 754
Main Authors Hadorn, David C, Davis, John A, Starr, David S, Blackburn, George L, Carpenter, Alan F, Bell, Bertrand M, Frenkel, Marcel, Shortell, Stephen M, McNerney, Walter J
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Massachusetts Medical Society 13.09.1990
Subjects
Delivery of Health Care - trends
Health Services - trends
Health Services Accessibility - trends
Medicare - legislation & jurisprudence
United States
United States
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Summary:To the Editor: Both Shortell and McNerney 1 and Kinzer 2 in their Sounding Board articles (Feb. 15 issue) dismiss too quickly the possibility of a universal health care plan. One feasible route to this elusive goal has so far largely escaped attention: expand the Medicare program to include all Americans. Although far from perfect, Medicare remains the single most efficient health insurance plan in the United States, paying out more than 96 cents in benefits for every dollar collected. 3 If this level of efficiency was maintained after expansion (a viable assumption, given that the Canadian Medicare system also has an overhead . . .
Bibliography:SourceType-Other Sources-1
content type line 63
ObjectType-Correspondence-1
ObjectType-Commentary-2
ISSN:0028-4793
1533-4406
DOI:10.1056/NEJM199009133231111