Evaluating the Cost of Health-Care Reform Plans

Abstract

The cost of expanding access to acute medical care is one of the least understood aspects of health-care reform. As of January 1992, over twenty health-care reform proposals had been introduced before Congress, each with a different target population, scope of benefits, source of financing, and role for the public sector. Analysis of these plans has produced a wide range of cost estimates, and as the debate over health-care reform intensifies, attention is likely to focus on the costs of reform. The purpose of this Article is to provide a framework for evaluating the costs of various health-care reform proposals.