Congressional Proposals to Increase Federal Health Care Spending: A Flawed Approach, Building on Failure

Legislative proposals are pending in Congress to vastly expand federal financing and government control of medical care. The two leading House bills take divergent approaches to enlarging the federal role. Despite their differences in approaches, both assume that more federal spending and greater government control over the allocation of medical goods and services would improve health care. This overlooks substantial evidence that existing federal spending on health care is misallocated. Increasing federal spending would certainly not remedy this problem. To correct the misallocation of federal resources, states should be encouraged to develop and pursue alternative means of making health care more affordable by increasing consumer choices and reducing costs.

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