JAMA Forum: When do externalities matter in health care?

Most people feel that the negative externality that anti-vaxxers impose on society—endangering those who cannot be vaccinated and threatening loss of herd immunity—warrants some government coercion to vaccinate. Yet, in many other instances in which externalities arise, including due to lack of purchase of health insurance, government coercion not as widely accepted. Why the difference? I discuss over on the JAMA Forum.

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Austin Frakt

Austin Frakt, PhD, is co-Editor-in-Chief of The Incidental Economist. His day job is Associate Director of the Partnered Evidence-based Policy Resource Center at the Boston VA Healthcare System, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. He is also a Professor with the Department of Health Law, Policy and Management at the Boston University’s School of Public Health, a Principal Research Scientist with the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Editor-in-Chief of the journal Health Services Research.

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