Gregg Easterbrook

In the following viewpoint, Gregg Easterbrook contends that managed care has helped the health care system by keeping Americans healthier while it successfully controls costs. Americans are living longer thanks to managed care’s emphasis on preventative medicine, he maintains. In addition, the feared rationing of expensive but proven procedures like bypass surgery and organ transplants has never materialized. Easterbrook insists that pressure from HMOswas responsible for a substantial drop in physician and hospital fees from 1993 to 2000, making health care more affordable and accessible to more people. Gregg Easterbrook
is a writer for The New Republic.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. According to the author, why must the majority of physicians and hospitals accept managed care?
2. In Easterbrook’s opinion, what was the reason for the...