Obstacles to dependent health care access in Oregon: health insurance or health care?

In the 1980s, Oregon was one of a handful of "states that could not wait" for national health care reform. Oregon's chosen approach to reform was predicated on two widely accepted assumptions. First, universal access to health care is best achieved by universal access to health insurance. Second, universal access to health care could best be achieved, at least politically, by incrementally building upon the existing health care delivery and insurance system. This article questions both of these assumptions in light of Oregon's decade-long experience in trying to expand access to health care among its dependent population.     

The fundamental law that shapes the United States health care system: is universal health care realistic within the established paradigm?

In this article, the author draws from his own experience as a doctor in describing the issues the uninsured patient population faces. Pointing out that neither the U.S. Constitution nor case law provides a positive right to health care, the author describes the parameters of federal health care funding and ultimately concludes that universal health care cannot be fully achieved in the U.S.     

Is medical care different? Old questions, new answers

This paper examines whether changes in medical markets may be making them more like other markets. The emergence of HMOs and other managed care systems appears to have increased the consumer's potential ability to make better comparative judgments about the price and quality of medical care, and also seems to have made medical care more like other goods. However, the evidence that medical care is a "reputation good" suggests that it is, in this respect, different from other goods. Finally, the social concerns about medical care use necessarily make medical care different.