A Proposal for Universal Coverage

To the Editor: Four thoughtful pieces in the March 24 issue 1 – 4 call attention to the need for universal health insurance and to the financial problems that must be resolved. The two Sounding Board articles, by Emanuel and Fuchs 1 and Mongan and Lee, 2 state that more federal taxes would be required, but neither suggests a unified insurance plan to replace the present costly mix of government entitlements and multiple for-profit plans and neither considers the possibility of changing the organization of practice or the system for compensating physicians in order to reduce costs and improve the quality of care. Such . . .