Government Involvement in Health Care Flashcards
Constitutional Basis for Gov involvement in health care
-health care is not in the constitution
1. welfare clause
2. commerce clause
3. state governments
why gov and health care
-free market and profit abuses
-need for regulation
-control of drs and medicines
Federal Government Purpose
-perform tasks free agents couldn’t/wouldn’t do
-involved in PUBLIC health (waste/sanitization)
-but what about PERSONAL health?
Welfare Clause
-“provide for general welfare”
-vague and subjective
Commerce Clause
-“Congress shall have power to regulate commerce arising among: foreign nations, the several state, and Indians
-feds can regulate things distributed BETWEEN states
what was the Commerce Clause evoked for
-sulfanilamide posioning
-created the FDA
-only bc of interstate commerce in the product
State Governments
-retain broad powers
-police power: “to enact laws to protect and promote health, safety, peace..”
-promote HEALTH not health CARE
PPACA “ObamaCare”
-required everyone to purchase health insurance
-“Individual Mandate”
-debated by supreme court
-allowed by congress to impose taxes
-so that this health insurance is a tax not an aspect of health care
Why gov involvement in health care?
-economic efficiency
-social equity
-safety
economic efficiency
-help as many ppl as possible
-HC lacks free market functions and interferes with normal free market control/allocation
-elasticity of demand
-physician control of demand
Bottom line of economic efficiency
-HC not efficient
-GOV regulation needed to determine where to spend resources
Social equity
-equitable distribution
-should we all have ACCESS to HC despite ability to pay?
Safety
-major driver of regulation
-trumps efficiency and equity
Roles of Social Values in Gov involvement
-libertarian vs egalitarian
-constrained vs unconstrained
constrained
-people are innately limited by human greed
-humans have to be humans take that into account
-having choices is how we better society overall
Unconstrained
people are capable of unlimited growth over time