Health Affairs

Health Affairs, 28, no. 1 (2009): 295-296 doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.28.1.295-a © 2009 by Project HOPE	New Online   Getting Health Reform Done   After the State of the Union   Incremental Reform   E-Health in Developing World   Most-Read Articles in 2009

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Letters

Regulation In China, India, And The United States

Recent articles on China and India (Jul/Aug 08) share the assumptions that markets for medical care and health insurance require extensive government regulation and that each nation should focus on universal coverage.

I am unfamiliar with the history of regulation in those nations. But the track record of clinician and insurance regulation in the United States is not encouraging. Both have been used by incumbents to block competition, leading to higher costs and lower quality. Gerald Bloom and colleagues worry that unless India imposes clinician licensing, "the natural process of competition is expected to force each insurer to come up . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Michael F. Cannon
Cato Institute, Washington, D.C.

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