Universal health coverage proposals are "predicated on the flawed notion that the insured subsidize the care of the uninsured," but "the uninsured are not the primary reason for spiraling health costs," John Graham, director of health care studies at the Pacific Research Institute, writes in a Chicago Tribune opinion piece. According to Graham, "Ironically -- and counterintuitively -- the real problem behind out-of-control costs is 'overinsurance.'" He adds that across the U.S., many insured residents "are consuming far more health care than they actually need." Forcing people to purchase health insurance "won't magically transform the incentives for the uninsured to consume health care," it "will simply move them onto a higher spending baseline," Graham writes. However, many politicians are reluctant to address the issue because asking "millions of insured Americans to willingly consume less health care is a path to electoral defeat," according to Graham. He concludes that until the problem is addressed, U.S. residents "can expect to be deluged with proposals for mandatory health insurance that are unhealthy, unwise and expensive," and that will "do nothing but drive our costs even higher" (Graham, Chicago Tribune, 3/5).