Abstract

U.S. health reform: Unkindest cuts

If the U.S.'s 1994 health care reform debate was unsatisfying, this past year's was grotesque. The Republicans' proposals would imperil the already inadequate insurance coverage of the poor, sick and old, accelerate the corporate invasion of medicine, and virtually abolish legal and regulatory restraints on profit-driven transgressions. Meanwhile, the American Medical Association mortified the public and the profession by flipping from opposition to support of the Republican Medicare agenda in exchange for a promised few extra dollars. In September, more Americans said they were interested in the Medicare debate, and health care again tops the list of voters' concerns. The Republican plan that U.S. President Bill Clinton vetoed in December called for cuts of $270 billion from Medicare and $163 billion from Medicaid over the next seven years.