The normative and positive economics of minimum health benefits

Abstract

Institutional structures to provide health insurance are changing. Many countries which formerly had unitary social insurance systems are looking to add elements of markets to those arrangements. In the United States, which has only provided limited social insurance for acute medical care for the elderly and the poor, there have been increasingly frequent discussions of the problem of the uninsured non-elderly and the possibility of some form of social insurance as a solution.

I am indebted to Willard Manning and Roland Eisen for very helpful comments.