The COVID-19 pandemic is in its early stages but that has not stopped some commentators from claiming the U.S.’s unsteady early response proves they were right all along about what is wrong with health care in this country. The tendency to see the crisis as validating a pre-determined agenda can be found among both advocates and detractors of stronger governmental control over the health system but it appears to be more pronounced among the former. As an example, an opinion writer at the New York Times recently pinned the blame for the U.S.’s stumbles on a profit-seeking medical-care system that is driven by market incentives.
It’s a weak argument. What has occurred so far is mainly a story about how effectively governments acted in response to a public health threat. The capacities of health systems to take care of sick patients is important, of course, but the primary reason some countries have fared better than others is because they deployed virus containment strategies aggressively and quickly. No country with widespread infection rates has avoided a high level of mortality. The U.S.’s response was not strong initially, which needs to be remedied, and is discussed below. But “market incentives” had nothing to do with these problems and may be instrumental in getting the country, and the world, out of its current mess.
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