After the failure of President Bill Clinton's effort to create universal health insurance in 1994, many experts thought that the private sector -- health maintenance organizations and other forms of managed care -- would deliver cost-efficient, high-quality medical care. But managed care's success in controlling costs proved short-lived, in part because patients and doctors bristled against its hard bargaining and restrictions on care.
Now, many experts agree with Drew Altman, president of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a health research group, who said: ''No one has a big new answer on what to do about health care costs. And it's all made worse because health costs are rising in bad economic times.''
The strains in the system are increasingly apparent.
Spending on health care rose 6.9 percent in 2000, the largest one-year percentage increase since 1993, federal researchers reported this year. Spending on prescription drugs and hospital care grew particularly fast, largely because of advances in technology and ''the retreat from tightly managed care,'' said Paul B. Ginsburg, president of the Center for Studying Health System Change, a research organization.
Health insurance premiums rose an average of 11 percent last year and are expected to rise an additional 13 percent this year after several years of very modest growth. Premiums for many small businesses will rise even higher, many experts say. The California Public Employees' Retirement System, or Calpers, reported that its premiums would rise an average of 25 percent next year.
Decade After Health Care Crisis, Soaring Costs Bring New Strains
Who knows..but its gonna have to be done...Obamacare was unsustainable in the long term..either the State goes all in and nationalizes with single payer or they get out and let prices fall and just pay the premiums for the indigent...this being half in half out is a vain attempt to protect the health insurers from the inevitable.
there is only one approach more affordable than Obama/Hillarycare
free market principles sir 