This is also partly Bush’s doing, or, rather, not doing, as his first-term policy on health spending was to do virtually nothing to encourage efficiency and cost containment. Instead, he enacted a Medicare drug benefit that promises to spend enormous amounts of money for surprisingly little in the way of better health care.
在重要性上紧随其后的是美国医疗保健计划即将到来的长期性开支飙升。布什对此也要负一定责任，或者说，正是因为他首任内在鼓励效率和控制成本的医疗开支政策上几乎无所作为才导致了今天这种局面。相反，他颁布了医疗保险药物报销政策，这项政策花费巨额款项，但带来的医疗改善却微乎其微。