ABSTRACT

The challenge of slowing the steep rise in health care expenditures has been the focus of both public and private policy for the past two decades. Recent opinion surveys have disclosed the deepening restiveness of the American public over the shortcomings of US health care, which has grown to such a point that the majority of the respondents look favorably on alternative systems, particularly the Canadian one. The United States tried a federal-state financing system for the health care of the indigent elderly before opting for Medicare in 1965. The same public that admires the Canadian system also expresses a deep desire for more and better health care services. Some corporate managers and executives nod favorably in the direction of a federal or a federal and state system of universal health coverage, but they have not moved to the head of the parade for national health insurance.