Health care reform has long been a priority in American politics, yet its success is limited. Lyndon Johnson signed Medicare into law in 1965 in the hope of incrementally building a system of universal health care in the United States, but this never came to pass. Bill Clinton’s 1993 reform proposal went down in flames, and most recently, George W. Bush’s support of health savings accounts has done little to change the health care debate.

One of the reasons health care reform in the United States is so often discussed but rarely addressed is because health care is an exceedingly complicated policy arena. Misinformation and confusion often permeate the health care debate, stalling progress and often inciting conflict where cooperation was intended.

Perhaps no issue is more controversial than that of looking abroad for solutions: How do other nations provide health care? What are their successes, their failures, and their challenges—and how can we learn from them? Some feel that finding solutions elsewhere somehow subordinates the United States’ exceptionalism to the values and priorities of other nations.

But this assertion itself is an example of the poor understanding that often muddles the health care debate: other nations do health care in many different ways, and the value of looking abroad lies not in replication, but in the selection and adaptation of useful ideas.

Some of the objections to international models stems from opposition to national health insurance, which most every other nation in the world except the United States offers its citizens. But this position too wilts when faced with the diverse, and often successful, national insurance programs found in countries around the world.

With so many misconceptions influencing discussions on health care reform and national health insurance, information is paramount. National Health Insurance: Lessons from Abroad is meant to provide this information by shedding light, simply and directly, on the complex issues that face the United States and to look at how other nations respond to the challenges of health care.

Download The Basics: National Health Insurance: Lessons From Abroad

PDF format, 3.1MB, 74Pages.

Copyright © 2008 by The Century Foundation, Inc.

The Basics Series:
America is engaged in difficult and complex policy debates over critical issues. There are conflicting claims and disagreements over the meaning of the facts and figures relating to the significance of the social safety net, the way our political system works, and the economic issues facing our nation. The Century Foundation hopes to help clarify these issues by collecting the best available information and presenting it in a series of pamphlets called The Basics.

The intent of this series is in keeping with the Foundation’s mandate. Since 1919, The Century Foundation, formerly the Twentieth Century Fund, has sponsored and supervised research on economic, social, and political issues. As a nonpartisan but not neutral organization, our underlying philosophy regards government as an instrument, not an enemy, of the people, and therefore we strive, in the words of our bylaws, for the “improvement of economic, industrial, civic, cultural, and educational conditions.”

The Century Foundation also believes in the power of well-reasoned, well-researched ideas. These pamphlets are presented in that spirit. They are our contribution to increased citizen understanding and wiser governmental decisions.

Other Titles in the Series:
The Middle Class at Risk
Public Policy in an Aging America
USA Patriot Act
Immigration Reform
Tax Reform
Balancing the Budget
Social Security Reform
Medicare Reform
Medicaid Reform

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The Century Foundation, founded in 1919 by the progressive businessman Edward A. Filene, is a nonprofit public policy research institution committed to the belief that a mix of effective government, open democracy, and free markets is the most effective solution to the major challenges facing the United States. Our staff, fellows, and contract authors produce publications and participate in events that (1) explain and analyze public issues in plain language, (2) provide facts and opinions about the strengths and weaknesses of different policy strategies, and (3) develop and call attention to distinctive ideas that can work.

Our efforts cut across many areas of policy, but focus particularly on four basic challenges facing the United States:

    * persistent economic inequality combined with the shift to American households of financial risks previously borne by employers and government;
    * the aging of the population;
    * preventing and responding to terrorism while preserving civil liberties; and
    * restoring America’s international credibility as an effective and cooperative leader in responding to global security and economic dangers.

Those themes lead us to produce work on issues such as Social Security and pensions, health care, education, tax and budget policy, homeland security, immigration, election reform, international terrorism, our relationship with the United Nations and other multilateral institutions, and policies toward regions like the Middle East and East Asia.
In recent years, the ascendance of conservative ideology has obscured the value of progressive ideas and delayed a much needed correction to failed policies. Much of our recent work, therefore, of necessity has attempted to demonstrate why radical approaches to these issues have been counterproductive.

The Century Foundation’s long history of providing reliable and insightful analysis, as well as our decades of experience in convening bipartisan, diverse task forces and working groups, particularly distinguishes us from other think tanks. Political forces have swung dramatically during the passing decades and surely will again in the future. But our commitment to offering reason and facts in the pursuit of national progress endures.

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