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ative Cooper and Senator Chaffee oppose employer mandates. Instead, Senator Chaffee's plan would require all Americans to purchase health insurance in the same way that all drivers must carry liability insurance (Dentzer, 'Sizing' 34). Chaffee's individual mandates place the responsibility of obtaining coverage on the individual where it belongs. An employer should be held no more responsible for financing an employee's health care than for determining his lifestyle. Even though one smoker who gets lung cancer will cost the system $29,000 a year (U.S. Health 34), should an employer have the responsibility to get an employee to stop smoking? If individuals continue to have some financial responsibility for the cost of their health care, perhaps they will eat better, exercise more, and take advantage of preventive care.

Individual mandates would also prevent rising health care cost-shifting. Cost-shifting will occur unless all Americans are insured. Currently, some 37 million Americans lack health insurance coverage, depriving them of ready access to appropriate care and creating an extra burden on the entire system. Often, problems of the uninsured that could have been avoided through the use of preventative services become more costly due to a lack of timely care (U.S. Health 55). Usually, the uninsured are forced to seek medical care through the hospital emergency room which is costly and inefficient. The cost of caring for the uninsured is generally shifted to those who pay the bills. To prevent uncompensated care from driving medical and insurance costs up, all Americans must be insured.

It is vital to this country's economic security that voters become educated about health care. Health care reform will most likely be enacted this year. For those in Congress who face re-election, the opinions of their constituents regarding health care will most definitely influence their position. Americans must no longer behave like spoiled children. The wants of Americans must be changed to the needs of America. The final reform should not only contain provisions for quality health care for all Americans, but also financially sound methods to fund it. The administration's Health Security Act will not work without fundamental changes. President and Mrs. Clinton must be willing to compromise. Aspects of Representative Cooper's Managed Competition Act and Senator Chaffee's Health Equity and Access Reform Today Act are essential to a reformed health care system.

Works Cited

Barone, Michael. 'The Rocky Road Ahead for Clinton.' U.S. News and World Report 6 Dec. 1993: 35.

Brown, Don P. 'Clinton's Alliances Can Ruin the Healthcare System.' Tulsa Business Journal 20 Dec. 1993: 8.

Collins, Sara. 'The Visible Hand.' U.S. News and World Report 4 Oct. 1993: 78+.

'Comparison of Major Health Care Reform Proposals.' N.p. Healthcare Leadership Council, 1993.

Cooper, Jim, Charles Stenholm, and John Breaux. The Managed Competition Act of 1993. Washington: U.S. Congress, 2 Sep. 1993.

Dentzer, Susan. 'Harry, Louise and Health Alliances.' U.S. News and World Report 7 Mar. 1994: 62.

- - -. 'Sizing Up the Other Plans.' U.S. News and World Report 7 Feb. 1994: 30+.

- - -. 'Will America Get Universal Health-care?' U.S. News and World