Social Work Takes Active Role in Health Care Reform

Abstract

The crisis in American health care is growing. As costs continue to escalate, as the quality of and access to services deteriorate, and as public opinion polls show increasing numbets of people dissatisfied with the present system, the public debate on health care reform has intensffied. There is no group in this country today-including physicians and the private insurance industry-who has not recognized the need to jump on the “change” bandwagon. Headlines on the problems and proposed solutions appear in the press daily. Overhauling U.S. health care was the number-one issue at the national meeting of governors in Seattle in August (1). Dozens of bills have been introduced in Congress, and 30 state legislatures are contemplating universal-access-to-healthcare legislation (2). The question now is not how to generate support among state and federal officials, but how to obtain the best, most comprehensive plan for health and mental health care for all Americans. A recent Public Broadcasting Service documentary comparing the U.S. and Canadian health care systems-Borderline Medicine, which aired in New York City in late August-reported the economic, social, and moral consequences of the American government’s unwilling-