Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

National Health Insurance

An Ethical Assessment

  • Chapter
Biomedical Ethics Reviews · 1990

Part of the book series: Biomedical Ethics Reviews ((BER))

  • 32 Accesses

Abstract

For more than 75 years, some kind of national health insurance (NHI) has been proposed for the United States. Rashi Fein, who has documented the debates concerning these proposals, finds the staying power of NHI to be quite remarkable. One can, he believes, draw two opposite conclusions from this: “that, since the conception of NHI has survived for three-quarters of a century, it can’t be all bad; or that since it has not been enacted over such a span of time, it must be fatally flawed.” 1 But whatever the merits or flaws of any particular form of NI-II, the problem that prompts the debate about the appropriate form of government persists: it is the problem of an increasing number of“have-nots;”2 37 million Americans were without any private or public health insurance in early 1987; prices for health insurance continue to rise at between one and one-half and two times the rate of the consumer price index.3

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Notes and References

  1. Rashi Fein (1989) Medical Care Medical Costs: The Search for a Health Insurance Policy. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, p. 34.

    Google Scholar 

  2. 1bid.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Ibid.,p. v.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Larry R. Churchill (1987) Rationing Health Care in America: Perceptions on Principles ofJustice. Notre Dame University Press, Notre Dame, IN.

    Google Scholar 

  5. For competing theories, see the chapter on Justice in Tom L. Beauchamp and James F. Childress, Principles of Biomedical Ethics. Oxford University Press, New York, NY, pp. 256–306.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Rashi Fein, op. cit., 198.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Beauchamp and Childress, op. cit., 257.

    Google Scholar 

  8. John Stuart Mill (1957) Utilitarianism. Bobbs-Merrill, New York, NY, p. 62.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Ibid.

    Google Scholar 

  10. David Himmelstein anD SteffieWoolhandler (1989) “A National Health Program for the United States: A Physician’s Proposal,” New England Journal of Medicine 320 102–108.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. bid.,102.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Gene Outka (1974) “Social Justice and Equal Access to Health Care,” Journal of Religious Ethics 2, 11–32.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Himmelstein and Woolhandler, op. cit., 102.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Larry Churchill, op. cit.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Himmelstein and Woolhandler, op. cit., 105.

    Google Scholar 

  16. Ibid., 102.

    Google Scholar 

  17. 1bid.

    Google Scholar 

  18. 1bid.,103.

    Google Scholar 

  19. 1bid.

    Google Scholar 

  20. Ibid.,107.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Ibid.

    Google Scholar 

  22. /bid.,102.

    Google Scholar 

  23. /bid., 103.

    Google Scholar 

  24. Uwe E. Reinhardt (1987) “Health Insurance for the Nation’s Poor,” Health Affairs Spring 1987, 101–112.

    Google Scholar 

  25. /bid.,108–109.

    Google Scholar 

  26. /bid., 102.

    Google Scholar 

  27. Ibid.

    Google Scholar 

  28. Ibid., 103.

    Google Scholar 

  29. /bid.

    Google Scholar 

  30. Ibid., 103–104.

    Google Scholar 

  31. Ibid., 110–111.

    Google Scholar 

  32. /bid., 102.

    Google Scholar 

  33. Ibid., 104.

    Google Scholar 

  34. Ibid.

    Google Scholar 

  35. /bid., 103.

    Google Scholar 

  36. /bid.

    Google Scholar 

  37. Ibid.

    Google Scholar 

  38. /bid.

    Google Scholar 

  39. /bid., 104.

    Google Scholar 

  40. Ibid.

    Google Scholar 

  41. /bid., 105.

    Google Scholar 

  42. /bid.

    Google Scholar 

  43. Edward Kennedy and Henry Waxman, S768 and HR1845.

    Google Scholar 

  44. The proposal by Enthoven and Kronick, referenced at note,has this as one important feature.

    Google Scholar 

  45. Reinhardt, op. cit., 107.

    Google Scholar 

  46. /bid., 110–111.

    Google Scholar 

  47. Ibid., 111.

    Google Scholar 

  48. /bid., 110.

    Google Scholar 

  49. The Nation’s Health 1990 (Mar), 11.

    Google Scholar 

  50. Alain Enthoven and Richard Kronick (1989) “A Consumer-Choice Health Plan for the 1990’s: Universal Health Insurance in a System Designed to Promote Quality and Economy.” (First of two parts) New England Journal of Medicine 320, 29–37; (Second of Two Parts) 320, 94–101.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  51. /bid.,31.

    Google Scholar 

  52. Ibid.,29.

    Google Scholar 

  53. /bid.

    Google Scholar 

  54. /bid., 30.

    Google Scholar 

  55. /bid.

    Google Scholar 

  56. /bid., 31.

    Google Scholar 

  57. /bid.,30.

    Google Scholar 

  58. /bid.,31.

    Google Scholar 

  59. /bid., 101.

    Google Scholar 

  60. Chapter 23 of the Acts of 1988 signed into law by the Governor, April 21, 1988.

    Google Scholar 

  61. Enthoven and Kronick, op. cit., 97.

    Google Scholar 

  62. /bid.

    Google Scholar 

  63. Jbid., 35.

    Google Scholar 

  64. 1bid.

    Google Scholar 

  65. Rashi Fein,op. cit.

    Google Scholar 

  66. Jbid., 194.

    Google Scholar 

  67. /bid.,194–195.

    Google Scholar 

  68. /bid.,195.

    Google Scholar 

  69. ibid.

    Google Scholar 

  70. lbid.,196.

    Google Scholar 

  71. Ibid.,192.

    Google Scholar 

  72. /bid.,222.

    Google Scholar 

  73. /bid.,216.

    Google Scholar 

  74. Ibid.,216–220.

    Google Scholar 

  75. /bid.,220–222.

    Google Scholar 

  76. /bid.,215.

    Google Scholar 

  77. The Nation’s Health, op. cit.,11.

    Google Scholar 

  78. Henry Aaron and William B. Schwartz (1990) “Rationing Health Care: The Choice Before Us,” Science 247 416–422.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  79. Daniel S. Schultz and Michael P. Rafferty (1990) “Soviet Health Care and Perestroika,” American Journal ofPublicHealth 80,193–197.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  80. B. Brown (1989) “How Canada’s Health System Works,” Business & Health July 1989, 28–30; Adam L. Linton (1990) “The Canadian Health Care System: A Canadian Physician’s Perspective,” New England Journal of Medicine 322 197–199.

    Google Scholar 

  81. Beauchamp and Childress, op. cit.

    Google Scholar 

  82. Daniel Callahan (1987) Setting Limits: Medical Goals in an Aging Society. Simon and Schuster, New York, NY; Norman Daniels (1988) Am I My Parents’ Keeper? Oxford University Press, New York, NY.

    Google Scholar 

  83. Personal communication.

    Google Scholar 

  84. allahan and Daniels, op. cit.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Arthur J. Dyck
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. James S. DeLaney
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

    James M. Humber  & Robert F. Almeder  & 

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1991 Springer Science+Business Media New York

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Dyck, A.J., DeLaney, J.S. (1991). National Health Insurance. In: Humber, J.M., Almeder, R.F. (eds) Biomedical Ethics Reviews · 1990. Biomedical Ethics Reviews. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-0471-8_5

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-0471-8_5

  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, Totowa, NJ

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-6776-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-0471-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation