Source: Law & Liberty
by James C Capretta
“Health care presents unique challenges to elected officials. Without some public regulation, market failures will lead to consequences many voters would find unacceptable, as Kenneth Arrow explained long ago in a seminal essay. Among the problems that inevitably arise is the collision of risk aversion among consumers, which leads them to seek insurance protection against expensive medical services, with the ability of insurers to steer clear of potential customers who can be identified as high risks because of their health conditions. … Public regulation and subsidies are the tools all countries use, including the US, to address this unavoidable problem. But these challenges in the market do not mean that the only viable system is one based on full governmental control, which itself carries risks owing to the predictable failings of regulations written and overseen by politically sensitive officials.” (04/25/24)