Commentary: Politics and the Health Care System

Abstract

American youngsters are taught in their civics courses that "smart" American voters stand ready to be confronted with tough choices, to ponder them carefully, and to express their own choices at the ballot box.Real-life politicians rarely meet such voters. More typically, politicians confront apathetic voters whose attention span is taxed even by the minimalist sound bites of the morning television shows, and who expect magic from political candidates. For example, they expect that government will protect Americans from any rationing of health care, will finance acute and long-term care for all the elderly (rich as well as poor), will . . .