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We’ve Got You Covered: Rebooting American Health Care

In their new book, We’ve Got You Covered: Rebooting American Health Care, economists Liran Einav (Stanford University) and John Bates Clark Medal winner Amy Finkelstein (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) note, “No one is actually uninsured.” They nevertheless critique the US health sector as “a sprawling yet arbitrary and inadequate mess.” Where many advocate piecemeal reform, Einav and Finkelstein urge policymakers to “tear it all down and rebuild.” They recommend that the government provide “automatic, basic, and free universal coverage for everyone.” Finkelstein will join Michael F. Cannon, Cato’s director of health policy studies, for a conversation about We’ve Got You Covered, the merits of incremental versus comprehensive change, and whether reform should involve greater or less government intervention.

Lunch to follow.

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Weve Got You Covered

Few of us need convincing that the American health insurance system needs reform. But many of the existing proposals focus on expanding one relatively successful piece of the system or building in piecemeal additions. These proposals miss the point.

As the Stanford health economist Liran Einav and the MIT economist and MacArthur Genius Amy Finkelstein argue, our health care system was never deliberately designed, but rather pieced together to deal with issues as they became politically relevant. The result is a sprawling yet arbitrary and inadequate mess. It has left 30 million Americans without formal insurance. Many of the rest live in constant danger of losing their coverage if they lose their job, give birth, get older, get healthier, get richer, or move.

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Amy Finkelstein copped
Amy Finkelstein

John & Jennie S. MacDonald Professor of Economics, MIT