This article offers a theoretical framework for understanding the crisis of the U.S. health care system and the mainstream debate on restructuring health care financing and delivery subsystems. The author argues that the crisis of the health care system is a cause and a consequence of the long cycle of structural changes in the U.S. economy since World War II. The article distinguishes between the level and the rate of growth of health care expenditures. It is possible to moderate the level of health care expenditure by adopting measures in the direction indicated by the historical experience of other advanced capitalist economies. However, in the long term the rate of growth of health care costs will exceed the rate of growth of gross domestic product, thus any attempt to limit it will result in deterioration in the quantity and quality of health care services. The 1993–1994 mainstream debate is revisited to show how these proposals were a part of the overall effort to resolve the long-term problems of the U.S. economy. The defeat of the Clinton plan was due to its concerns with efficiency of the health care system in the face of the demand by a majority of the U.S. capitalist class to cut costs.
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