Amy Finkelstein on We've Got You Covered: Rebooting American Health Care

Video & Timestamps

On Thursday, December 14, Amy Finkelstein joined Markus’ Academy for a conversation on We’ve Got You Covered: Rebooting American Health Care. Amy Finkelstein is the John Jennie S. MacDonald Professor of Economics at MIT.

Watch the full presentation below. You can watch all Markus’ Academy webinars on our Markus’ Academy YouTube Channel.

Timestamps:

[00:00] Markus’ introduction and poll questions
[6:25] The three problems of the US healthcare system
[21:23] Function before form
[38:59] Writing the Unwritten Contract
[59:14] Q&A

Summary

• A summary in four bullets
  • The goal of Finkelstein and Einav’s book is to outline the tradeoffs around government health insurance and to answer the question: free from political constraints, what is the ideal healthcare system for the US?
  • They argue that the current system has three main problems: (1) too many are not insured, while even (2) the insured face uncertainty about their coverage in the immediate future. Further, (3) the coverage is not complete, with the insured facing a high degree of cost sharing.
  • To arrive at the solution, we must first be clear on what the goal of healthcare policy is. It is not to fix market failures, to reduce inequality, or to improve general health outcomes, it is to provide care for those in need. Healthcare is a part of the social contract.
  • With this in mind, the book argues for automatic, free, and basic universal healthcare. It would be closer to Medicaid for all (than Medicare for all), and would be supplemented with a private insurance market.
• Download the full summary here