title: US health care: single-payer or market reform.
abstract: The authors advocate a fundamental change in health care financing-national health insurance (NHI). NHI would reorient the way we pay for care, bringing the hundreds of billions now squandered on malignant bureaucracy back to the bedside. NHI could restore the physician-patient relationship, offer patients a free choice of physicians and hospitals, and free physicians from the hassles of insurance paperwork.
authors.affiliation: Harvard Medical School, Department of Medicine, Cambridge Hospital, Cambridge MA 02139, USA.
authors.forename: David U
authors.initials: DU
authors.lastname: Himmelstein
authors.forename: Steffie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Woolhandler
mesh_terms: D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009313:National Health Programs / Q000191:economics*; D014481:United States