Ask voters that too-familiar question about how they're faring today compared to 1992, and health care is one area where the news is largely bad and getting worse. Even after eight years of stellar economic growth, more than 44 million Americans remain uninsured, up almost 6 million since 1992. Those who are covered face rising costs, and few can choose between competing health plans. Yet neither Gore nor Texas Gov. George W. Bush has outlined a broad vision for fixing the problems that increasingly block patients from getting affordable access to high-quality care. Premiums have returned to their upward march after a brief pause.
Satisfaction is down, as patients grumble about being pushed by employers into restrictive HMOs.
A June Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that more than half had problems with their plans. Patient choice of health plans, critical to any healthy, functioning marketplace, has eroded. In 1989, almost two-thirds of workers had a choice of health plans. Today, fewer than half of workers report being offered a choice of plans at work. The candidates' reluctance to address these flaws head-on is understandable.