The Economics of Government Healthcare

Today's Seattle Times editorial tells a terrifying tale of the failure of central planning:

Millions of Americans either will stand in line for hours to get a flu shot or forgo it and risk their health because of inadequate planning by the federal government.

This experience alone should be enough to frighten even the most die-hard believer in government-run healthcare to come back home to Planet Reality. Whoever wrote this editorial, on the other hand, has some interesting theories about economics:

The government ignored warnings that companies were getting out of the business of manufacturing flu vaccine, and foolishly relied on market forces to protect public health.

The government has to increase incentives so more companies will make flu vaccine.

Shortages and queues are not caused by government's foolish reliance on market forces, but by government's foolish interference with market forces.

I'd be very interested in hearing about the magical anti-market incentives this editorialist thinks the government should be using.

Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at October 19, 2004 10:07 PM | Email This