SAN FRANCISCO –As 46 states begin their fiscal year this month, health care will prove to be one of the most costly expenditures. Medicaid spending alone is predicted to reach $320 billion this year. These dramatically rising health care costs should force state policymakers to lay the groundwork for meaningful and lasting reform according to health care expert John R. Graham, director of health care studies at the Pacific Research Institute and editor of the new book, What States Can Do to Reform Health Care: A Free Market Primer (available at www.pacificresearch.org or Amazon.com).

“The purpose of this primer is to educate state policymakers, legislators, and consumers about where we’ve gone wrong with health care and how we can fix it,” said Mr. Graham. “The solutions involve policies that permit more individual choice, increase competition, and result in greater fiscal stability.”

Seven leading scholars contributed chapters to the primer, which focuses on Medicaid (Nina Owcharenko), health insurance (J.P. Wieske), hospital certificate-of-need laws (Roy Cordato), malpractice liability (James R. Copland), physician quality assurance (Shirley V. Svorny), prescription piracy (Brett J. Skinner), and pharmaceutical costs (John R. Graham). Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina wrote the foreword. The book examines important areas of health care where states have the responsibility to finance, legislate, and regulate.

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