A State-By-State Approach to Universal Health Coverage 
Jeff Lemieux
7/6/2003

Economists Henry Aaron and Stuart Butler propose a federalist, state-by-state approach to end the deadlock on universal coverage.

In a Washington Post op-ed column today, Henry Aaron of the Brookings Institution and Stuart Butler of the Heritage Foundation, propose to use the states as building blocks in a national push for universal health coverage. 

This proposal, which will hopefully appeal to both liberals and conservatives, requires an active federal role in funding expansions of coverage based on assessments of the performance of states toward their coverage goals.  However, the proposal would not prescribe how states would achieve those goals, leaving that to local abilities and preferences.

The use of performance-based grants to states as the foundation of universal health coverage was proposed by the Progressive Policy Institute in 2000, and more recently as part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Covering America initiative. 

Links:
Washington Post Four Steps to Better Health Care by Henry J. Aaron and Stuart M. Butler (July 6, 2003)
Progressive Policy Institute A Performance-Based Approach to Universal Health Care by David B. Kendall, Jeff Lemieux, and S. Robert Levine (November 15, 2002)
Progressive Policy Institute A Progressive Path Toward Universal Health Coverage by Jeff Lemieux, David B. Kendall, Kerry Tremain, and S. Robert Levine (December 20, 2000)