It is Time for Universal Access, Not Universal Insurance
- 6 July 1989
- journal article
- Published by Massachusetts Medical Society in New England Journal of Medicine
- Vol. 321 (1) , 46-47
- https://doi.org/10.1056/nejm198907063210109
Abstract
An editorial by Relman proclaims, "Universal Health Insurance: Its Time Has Come."1 Other recent Journal articles recommend various consumerchoice health care systems,2 , 3 and the report of the National Leadership Commission on Health Care proposes what is essentially a national health insurance scheme.4 I submit, instead, that the idea whose time has come is universal access to care — not through universal insurance that is funded from a central source or tightly controlled by forces other than medical need, but through a pluralistic delivery system.Universal health insurance is not a good idea. To control goods or services through a single . . .Keywords
This publication has 5 references indexed in Scilit:
- American Medicine at the Crossroads: Signs from CanadaNew England Journal of Medicine, 1989
- Controlling Health Expenditures — the Canadian RealityNew England Journal of Medicine, 1989
- Universal Health Insurance: Its Time Has ComeNew England Journal of Medicine, 1989
- A National Health Program for the United StatesNew England Journal of Medicine, 1989
- A Consumer-Choice Health Plan for the 1990sNew England Journal of Medicine, 1989