No hurdle facing health care reform in the United States todayis more daunting than the problem of financing universal coverage.There is an inescapable logic of reform that lies behind thesearch for financing sources. First, moving to universal coverageis now widely acknowledged to require a mandate that individualscarry insurance coverage. Second, such a requirement is unacceptablewithout subsidies to make health insurance affordable for lower-incomepeople. Third, these subsidies will require new financing onthe order of $1 trillion or more over the next decade. How canthe government finance such a sizeable new expenditure?
From the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge.
This article (10.1056/NEJMp0904855) was published on June 10, 2009, at NEJM.org.
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