ABSTRACT
The United States health-care system is one than can accurately be characterized as being in crisis. Changes and reforms in the health care system are a complex function of structure, organization, financing, attitudes, and beliefs of providers and consumers about the system, and laws and regulations that respond to these attitudes and beliefs. Many of the changes in the health-care arena in the recent past can be traced to changes in laws and regulations related to health care. One of the driving forces behind the managed care backlash of the mid- to late 1990s was the perception that managed care organizations had reduced consumers' choice of providers, benefits alternatives, and even treatment options. Consumers have also strongly advocated for legislation that provides for a "freedom of choice clause" and for "continuity of care". Direct access laws, as freedom of choice laws have also been called, allow one to bypass a gatekeeper provider and go directly to a specialist.
