Question

As part of President Trump’s first and second year in office and during the recent discussions

of the American Health Care Act, there has been a lot of policy discussion about Obamacare. Using

the rationales for government intervention, give at least one rationale for why the

government should intervene in health insurance.

Answer 1

Government plays an important role in healthcare/ The rationale for government intervention is

With government intervention, universal healthcare can be provided to all the citizens of the state , thereby increasing the coverage of healthcare to everyone including the ones who cannot afford .

One important rationale behind it is government providing preventive measures . A poor person might not take preventive measures or vaccination because of the simple reason of not being able to afford it. But this could be a contagious disease which could have catastrophic effects like epidemic or plaque. So it becomes the responsibility of the government to ensure that they are being treated for these preventive diseases which would prevent it to go wrong for the whole country.

If government intervenes to provide healthcare, it could achieve economies of scale and thereby make healthcare more efficient because cost of providing healthcare would reduce per unit.

Another important reason is the alleviation of poverty. By providing healthcare, it is seen that in most developing countries the government is able to help reduce poverty. In most of the cases , the poor being unable to get treatment are either reduced to a liability or have a reduced productivity which affects their work outcome and traps them in vicious cycle of poverty . When healthcare is provided at a subsidized rate by the government , it could improve the health and productivity of poor thereby bringing them out of the trap of poverty.

(you can comment for doubts )