Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- List of Figures
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Executive Summary of the Targeted Intervention Plan
- PART I GOALS AND WORKING PRINCIPLES
- PART II BACKGROUND ECONOMICS AND ETHICS
- PART III APPLICATION
- PART IV PROTECTIVE MEASURES
- 9 Forestalling Free Riders
- 10 Preserving Prices
- 11 Inducing Innovation
- 12 Summary
- A Top Ten Goals for the American Health Care System
- B Badly Done Insurance Programs Can be Worse Than No Insurance
- C Incentive Symmetry and Intervention Principle
- D Plan Workability
- E Market Power Response to Insurance
- Glossary and Definitions
- References
- Index
12 - Summary
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- List of Figures
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Executive Summary of the Targeted Intervention Plan
- PART I GOALS AND WORKING PRINCIPLES
- PART II BACKGROUND ECONOMICS AND ETHICS
- PART III APPLICATION
- PART IV PROTECTIVE MEASURES
- 9 Forestalling Free Riders
- 10 Preserving Prices
- 11 Inducing Innovation
- 12 Summary
- A Top Ten Goals for the American Health Care System
- B Badly Done Insurance Programs Can be Worse Than No Insurance
- C Incentive Symmetry and Intervention Principle
- D Plan Workability
- E Market Power Response to Insurance
- Glossary and Definitions
- References
- Index
Summary
There is nothing so adamant against change, nothing that excites such indignation when attacked, as a wrong way of doing things that people have got used to.
Gifford Pinchot, American Conservationist, 1947Summary: We have referenced the founders of the American republic several times in this volume. Why did their work survive? Why did it do so well? To understand their choices, you must understand their reasons and their principles. At heart, they were “idea politicians” who applied principles to the task of establishing right incentives for government. There is a lesson here. Without referencing principles, the debate over health care degenerates into nothing more than a jumble of conflicting attitudes and opinions.
Variation regarding flexible implementation details notwithstanding, there is a virtually unique way to influence the economy to accomplish universal health insurance coverage that satisfies the objectives of Chapter 2, avoids the pitfalls of Chapter 3, and applies the principles of Chapter 3. Collected from the work of many others, with additions of our own, the implied structures incorporate and align incentives for an effective, sustainable health care system.
We are not the first to note that American health care has drifted into a wrong way of doing things that increasingly ignores economic principles. It needs answers to get back on track, but to get the right answers one needs to ask the right questions.
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- Health Care for Us AllGetting More for Our Investment, pp. 206 - 214Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009