Focus: Washington: Enthoven criticises Clinton's health care reforms

Abstract

An eighteenth century measure intended to prevent the British from seizing American colonists' property has returned to haunt President Clinton's attempts to reform the US health care system. The measure is the clause in the fifth amendment saying “Nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.” And it is being wielded by an unlikely opponent. Alain Enthoven, architect of British and American health reforms, is claiming that Clinton's proposals for global budgeting are unconstitutional. The argument is a complicated one - but Enthoven's main complaint is that Clinton has moved from the idea of a managed market place to government regulation. Enthoven, professor of public and private management at Stanford University, California, can claim the credit for providing the blueprints for two major reforms of health care. His ideas provided the rough sketches that …