Isn t the marketplace the best way to sort out the problems in health care?
The marketplace may be the best way to deal with cars or groceries or phone service, but it has proven to be a disaster in health care. The care of sick, vulnerable people is a particularly complex and unique function in a society, for which marketplace solutions have been found to work poorly. The economic near-death experience of Harvard-Pilgrim Health Care, the state s largest HMO, and the very vulnerable state of other health plans and some of our finest teaching hospitals are proof of the damage that “marketplace medicine” can do if left unchecked.
