What Killed Health Care Reform?

Beginning of article

In January 1993, enactment of comprehensive health care reform was widely believed to be inevitable. By September 1994, not even incremental change could be enacted. In the recent election, health care was barely an issue. How did health reform go from being a certainty to an impossibility?

The Clinton administration and the Democrats bear some responsibility. The secrecy of the infamous health reform task force (of which I was a staff member) unnecessarily raised media and public suspicions. The administration never explained clearly to the American people its complex plan or the logic behind its design. Nor did it ever develop a strategy to combat the massive advertising and lobbying by opponents of reform. To top it off, congressional Democrats were undisciplined, …