Ke. Barnhill et al., Improving access to care for the underserved - State-supported volunteerism as a successful component, ARCH IN MED, 161(18), 2001, pp. 2177-2181
Citations number
9
Categorie Soggetti
General & Internal Medicine","Medical Research General Topics
Despite unprecedented prosperity and unexpectedly large federal budget surp
luses during the 1990s, the problem of providing health care to the uninsur
ed has continued to expand. The ranks of the uninsured have increased from
37.5 million in 1992(1) to an estimated 44 million in 1997.(2) The unsucces
sful attempt at health care reform in 1993 signaled a policy retreat at the
federal level. Rather than the sweeping reform that was expected, growth i
n government-sponsored health insurance coverage would be, at best, increme
ntal. Enactment of the Title XXI Children's Health Insurance Program, as pa
rt of the Balanced Budget Act of 1997, was such an incremental measure. Wit
h a vacuum in health care policy leadership at the federal level, the baton
was handed to the states.