American Business and Health Care Reform

Abstract

American business is the purchaser of a third of all health services and supplies in the United States. As a major purchaser, business has a clear stake in keeping health care costs under control. Yet, despite efforts to control costs and a variety of political interventions over a 20-year period, business has not been able to have a substantial impact on the growth of the medical care industry. Within the context of this failure to affect costs, it seems logical that business leaders would aggressively pursue comprehensive reform. Yet opinion polls show deep splits between and among segments of business over how to effect reform. This article examines the way in which business becomes involved in the policy process, areas of consensus and disagreement over health care reform within the business community, the business view of managed competition and the Clinton administration's reform plan, and possibilities for future business support of comprehensive health care reform.