Harvard economist N. Gregory Mankiw writes in The New York Times about why health policy is so hard.

He cites:

“Externalities abound. In most markets, the main interested parties are the buyers and sellers. But in health care markets, decisions often affect unwitting bystanders, a phenomenon that economists call an externality.

“Take vaccines, for instance. If a person vaccinates herself against a disease, she is less likely to catch it, become a carrier and infect others. Because people may ignore the positive spillovers when weighing the costs and benefits, too few people will get vaccinated, unless the government somehow promotes vaccination.”

“Consumers often don’t know what they need. In most markets, consumers can judge whether they are happy with the products they buy. But when people get sick, they often do not know what they need and sometimes are not in a position to make good decisions. They rely on a physician’s advice, which even with hindsight is hard to evaluate.”

“Health care spending can be unexpected and expensive. Spending on most things people buy — housing, food, transportation — is easy to predict and budget for. But health care expenses can come randomly and take a big toll on a person’s finances.

“Health insurance solves this problem by pooling risks among the population. But it also means that consumers no longer pay for most of their health care out of pocket. The large role of third-party payers reduces financial uncertainty but creates another problem,”  which is:

“Insured consumers tend to overconsume. When insurance is picking up the tab, people have less incentive to be cost-conscious. For example, if patients don’t have to pay for each doctor visit, they may go too quickly when they experience minor symptoms. Physicians may be more likely to order tests of dubious value when an insurance company is footing the bill.”

“Insurance markets suffer from adverse selection.  If customers differ in relevant ways (such as when they have a chronic disease) and those differences are known to them but not to insurers, the mix of people who buy insurance may be especially expensive.

“Suppose that insurance companies must charge everyone the same price. It might seem to make sense to base the price of insurance on the health characteristics of the average person. But if it does so, the healthiest people may decide that insurance is not worth the cost and drop out of the insured pool. With sicker customers, the company has higher costs and must raise the price of insurance. The higher price now induces the next healthiest group of people to drop insurance, driving up the cost and price again,”  and leading more and more people to drop their insurance coverage.

To read the article, please hit this link.