15 pages. "The federal government is the largest single payer of health care in the United States ... [The] various ways in which the U.S. government in its role as payer attempts to influence U.S. health care beg the question of what other players in the space will do in response -- and what this could possibly mean for the nation's health care system in the future.... The key question is whether the changes undertaken by these players will, together with government, enhance or detract from the widely proclaimed goal of better quality of health care at a more affordable cost."  MORE >>