A recent article in the venerable Washington Monthly magazine examined whether state governments are better equipped to provide universal health care than the federal government. The author traced health care reform efforts in such states as Washington, Hawaii, Tennessee, and Oregon. Some of the various approaches to reforming health care systems at the state level included focusing on cost-effectiveness and replacing fee-for-service structures with health maintenance organizations that received fixed fees. In the end, the author concluded that “providing health care for all citizens is one of those tasks, like national defense, that the states are simply unequipped to manage on their own.” Read the article here.
Speaking of states trying to enact health care reform, check out a recent NYT article about Pennsylvania’s current efforts to do just that here.
UPDATE: Here's an interesting news article in the Wall Street Journal about California's efforts to achieve universal health care: LINK.
Do you think providing universal health care is best achieved at the state or federal level?
Comments are closed for this post.
