This volume is a revised edition of The Institute for Contemporary Study's report on national health insurance (NHI). The debate on the NHI program has broadened in re-cent years as a greatly intensified public consciousness about costs has been faced with an enormous drain on public budgets from greatly underestimated cost esti-mates for Medicare and Medicaid. As budget limitations reduced prospects for a full, comprehen-sive plan, the policy debate broad-ened. The Carter administration began to emphasize its program for hospital cost containment, focus-ing on that medical sector which had...