Building a Better Mousetrap: Health Care Reform and the Arizona Program

Abstract

In recent years, increasing skepticism about the efficacy of government regulation has produced a regulatory reform movement. Advocates of regulatory reform argue that certain regulatory schemes traditionally administered by the government should be eliminated since consumer welfare is best served when the market is the primary organizer of economic activity. In addition, reformers have advocated that certain functions that have been traditionally performed by government be transferred to the private sector. Like deregulation, privatization has been urged on both the federal and state levels. Successful deregulation efforts in industries such as air and surface transportation, natural gas, financial services, telecommunications, and securities have encouraged the reformers to seek additional regulatory targets. Among the more interesting of these targeted areas is health care delivery.