Message-ID: <s383017b.079@crs.loc.gov> Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 13:59:31 -0500 From: Jonathan Sanford <mailto:JSANFORD@CRS.LOC.GOV> Subject: Re: Boring - further questions -Reply To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
Dear Florin,I believe you are wrong in your assertion that the IMF tells countries they must cut health care expenditures as a condition for borrowing. The Fund does say countries need to cut budget deficits and reduce monetary expansion. however, there are few if any countries where health care costs bulk so large and other potential items so small that health is the only feasible place to cut. Reductions of the losses sustained annually by state owed enterprise is a much more common place for the IMF to suggest cuts in outlays. In the United States, perhaps, cuts in federally financed health care outlays will be a significant part of any real long term stabilization of public finance. But (1) the structure of the US economy is not like that of most developing countries and (2) the United States is not likely to subject itself to IMF supervision by applying for financial assistance from that body.
Jon Sanford