| Abstract: | Health insurance in the United States is failing patients and physicians alike. In this country 37 million uninsured face economic barriers to care, and the health of many suffers as a result. The "corporatization" of medical care threatens professional values with an unprecedented administrative and commercial intrusion into the daily practice of medicine. Competitive strategies have also failed their most ostensible goal--cost control. In contrast, Canada offers a model of a national health insurance plan that provides universal and comprehensive coverage, succeeds at restraining health care inflation, and does little to abrogate the clinical autonomy of physicians in private practice. I propose that American physicians relent in their historical opposition to national health insurance and participate in the development of a universal, public insurance plan responsive to the needs of both patients and physicians. |
