USA Today Editorial Says Lawmakers Turn Blind Eye to Health Care System Decline

The "steady erosion in the nation's health care system has been met with near-universal silence from policymakers," USA Today writes in an editorial. Stating that "serious talk of reform ... vanished" after former President Clinton's universal health plan failed in 1994, the editorial argues that the same problems that the Clinton plan had sought to address -- "fast-rising premiums, uncertain coverage and millions of uninsured Americans" -- have only "worsened," as premiums have increased and the number of uninsured Americans has increased by almost three million. The editorial also cites a new Commonwealth Fund study (see story #6), which found that the percentage of Americans covered through their employers declined from two-thirds in 1988 to "just over one-half" in 1998. The decline is made more ominous by its occurrence in a time of "strong economic growth, relatively modest premium increases and a tight labor market -- a recipe for what should have been solid gains in coverage," according to the editorial. Despite the downward trends in health care, the editorial states that lawmakers "avoid talking about the clear need for universal health care coverage" because of the potential "political fallout," and the "tax cut just enacted has starved the government of the funds it would need to launch such an effort." Moreover, even "piecemeal reforms," such as tax credits, "aren't getting much traction these days." The editorial concludes that "clamor from the rising ranks of the uninsured eventually will force the issue back onto Washington's agenda. The pity is that today's policymakers lack the courage and foresight to address the problem before it becomes a crisis" (USA Today, 6/14).