Rationing America’s Medical Care: The Oregon Plan and Beyond

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As Americans struggle with the dual problems of exploding health care costs and ensuring access to health care for the uninsured, health care rationing has moved to the center of the public policy debate. A prime example of this is the intense public discussion surrounding the proposal by the state of Oregon to provide universal health care at a price: the explicit rationing of which diagnoses and treatments will be covered. Focusing largely on the Oregon proposal, this volume examines a wide range of ethical, methodological, legal, and political issues that must be addressed by any serious program of health care reform.

Martin A. Strosberg is associate professor in the Graduate Management Institute at Union College. Joshua M. Wiener is a senior fellow in the Economic Studies program at Brookings. He is the coauthor of Sharing the Burden: Strategies for Public and Private Long-Term Care Insurance (Brookings, 1994) and Caring for the Disabled Elderly: Who Will Pay? (Brookings, 1988). Robert Baker is director of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in the Union Graduate College and professor of bioethics and philosophy at Union College. I. Alan Fein is senior medical director of research and development at Executive Health Resources. Previously, he was a research professor in the College of Public Health at the University of Florida.