Going for gold: The redistributive agenda behind market-based health care reform

A report on market innovations over the last forty years.

Report

Published: 01/05/1998

ISBN: 1902089030

Download the report [PDF 300.7KB]

In this report, Professor Robert Evans, Professor of Economics at the University of British Columbia, opens with a statement, quoted from an article in Scientific American, that “fundamental economic principles...put efficient, competitive health care markets in the same class as powdered unicorn horn.”

The author explodes the myth that private, competitive markets, as described in economic textbooks, could exist anywhere in the world. The inherent characteristics of health and health care, where public and private action have always been combined, preclude such a possibility.

Suggested citation

Evans R (1998) Going for gold: The redistributive agenda behind market-based health care reform. Research report. Nuffield Trust.