Virtually everyone agrees that our health care system needs reform. But what kind of reform? Some want a return to the system that prevailed in the 1950s. Others would like to see the adaptation of the government-run systems prevalent in other countries. The latter, national health insurance or single-payer health insurance, appears to be gaining ground in the United States. Before Americans find themselves participating in a health care system that has failed in every country it was adopted, we should be asking ourselves whether such a system is effective and efficient. In Lives at Risk, the authors examine the critical failures of national health insurance systems without focusing on minor blemishes or easily correctable problems. In doing so, the purpose is to identify the problems common to all countries with national health insurance and to explain why these problems emerge. Most national health care systems are in a state of sustained internal crisis as costs rise and the stated goals of universal access and quality care are not met. In almost all cases, the reason is the same: the politics of medicine. The problems of government-run health care systems flow inexorably from the fact that they are government-run rather than market driven.
John C. Goodman is president and CEO of the National Center for Policy Analysis. The Wall Street Journal and the National Journal, among other media, have called him the "Father of Health Savings Accounts." He is also the Kellye Wright Fellow in health care. The mission of the Wright Fellowship is to promote a more patient-centered, consumer-driven health care system.
Dr. Goodman's health policy blog is the premier right-of-center health care blog on the Internet. It is the only place where pro-free enterprise, private sector solutions to health care problems are routinely examined and debated by top health policy experts throughout the country-conservative, moderate and liberal.
Goodman regularly appears on television and radio news and talk programs and authors editorials on economic policy issues. He regularly appears on the FOX News Channel, CNN, FOX Business Network and CNBC. He's also appeared on the Lehrer News Hour (PBS) and was a debater on many of William F. Buckley's Firing Line programs. Goodman also regularly contributes columns to The Wall Street Journal, Kaiser Health News and other national publications.
Dr. Goodman also was the pivotal lead expert in the NCPA's grassroots public policy campaign, "Free Our Health Care Now," an unsurpassed national education effort to communicate patient-centered alternatives to a government-run health care system. The initiative resulted in the largest online petition ever delivered on Capitol Hill.
He is frequently invited to testify before Congress on health care reform and retirement topics and is the author of more than 50 published studies on topics such as health policy, retirement reform and tax issues and nine books, including Lives at Risk: Single Payer National Health Insurance Around the World; Leaving Women Behind: Modern Families, Outdated Laws; and the trailblazing Patient Power: Solving America's Health Care Crisis, the condensed version of which sold more than 300,000 copies.
A native of Waco, Texas, Goodman became interested in economics and classical liberal ideas while an undergraduate at the University of Texas at Austin, where he became vice president of the student body. He is a crossword puzzle aficionado, and most days he is able to conquer the puzzles in The New York Times in ink.
Goodman received his Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University, and has taught and done research at Columbia, Stanford University, Dartmouth University, Southern Methodist University and the University of Dallas.
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