Health Care Reform — Why So Slow?

Recent opinion surveys have disclosed the American public's deepening restiveness over the shortcomings of U.S. health care, which has grown to such a point that the majority of the respondents now look favorably on alternative systems, particularly the Canadian one.1 In the face of increasingly severe and widespread criticism and discontent, why has movement toward health reform been at best modest and at worst ineffectual?To begin with, one must distinguish clearly between actions and effectiveness. The challenge of slowing the steep rise in health care expenditures has been the focus of both public and private policy for the past . . .