Entrepreneurial Healthcare: a Study in State Policy Arbitrage
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| Title: | Entrepreneurial Healthcare: a Study in State Policy Arbitrage |
| Author(s): | Jackson, Scott |
| Keywords: | health care; health insurance; entrepreneurial economy |
| Issue Date: | 15-Jul-2008 |
| Series/Report no.: | GMU School of Public Policy Working Papers |
| Abstract: | Since the presidential election of 1992, health care and health insurance have been prominent in the public policy debate. Advocates for government intervention have repeatedly cast the current system as grossly inefficient in its inability to provide for the poorest individuals, a situation not dissimilar from every other major private good (e.g. housing), by pointing to the number of uninsured. However, many on the opposing side have noted that the actual proportion of the population without insurance has remain largely unchanged since the late 1980s and that since the population has increased this proportional stagnation is the result of immigrants, many illegal entrants into the country, are not covered by health insurance, come from countries with national health insurance systems and therefore are unaccustomed to having to purchase health insurance, and who place an ever increasing burden on the U.S. health care delivery system (2006). Those opposed to the effective socialization of the U.S. healthcare system have pointed out that recent improvements in Medicare have actually produced substantial savings for retirees through competition between providers and better patient education, but the long term sustainability of this approach remains in doubt (Ohsfeldt and Schneider 2006). This paper will explore one small aspect of the current healthcare debate: current state initiatives related to insurance and their impact on the entrepreneurial economy. The reader should bear in mind that building healthcare systems for an entrepreneurial economy appears to be the farthest thing from the minds of state governments and regulators; so, alignment between the typical motivation, budget considerations, and the entrepreneurial economy are serendipitous. |
| URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/1920/3174 |
| Appears in Collections: | SPP Doctoral Working Papers |
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