More Epstein on Health Care

Back in March, Professor Epstein published a piece on the blog of the journal Health Affairs entitled "Health Care Disparities: Deregulation First, Redistribution Last." The piece begins so:

There is an immense volume of literature that expresses an abiding concern with the evident and persistent disparities in access to health care. These disparities are typically a function of race, sex, disability, or income. Once disparities have been documented, the usual approach to reform proposes some new form of intervention that is intended to smooth them out, usually by various kinds of forced access or subsidies regime. Just recently, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation announced, for example, a nonpartisan commission “to identify and recommend practical solutions to eliminate health disparities and improve health for all Americans.” Unfortunately, the chief consequence of these proposals will be, as it has usually been, to make a health system balkier and less responsive than it had been before. The identified disparities doggedly persist in spite of the best efforts to counter them.

Want to read more? Head on over to the Health Affairs blog to read the rest.