California's Efforts To Cover The Uninsured: Successes, Building Blocks, And Challenges.

During the last century, California policy makers tried multiple approaches to achieve the goal of affordable health coverage for all: employer and individual requirements, single payer, and hybrids. All failed, primarily because of the amount of financing needed to cover the large numbers of uninsured Californians and the supermajority vote requirements for tax increases. These failures, however, provided important lessons for state and national reform efforts.

Toward a 21st-century health care system: recommendations for health care reform.

The coverage, cost, and quality problems of the U.S. health care system are evident.