How COVID-19 will change the health care policy debate

The battle against COVID-19 has reinforced the inequities, cost anxieties and the inertia that has been a barrier to changing how health care works in the U.S.

Calls for a single-payer health system have become louder amid the growing crisis, with proponents arguing such a system would have provided better protection for the poor and vulnerable.

But others urge caution. They point to countries in Europe with single-payer systems that appeared to be no better prepared than the U.S.

MPR News host Kerri Miller spoke with a health economist and health policy researcher about what we’ve learned from COVID-19 and how it should inform future changes to our health care system.

Guests

• Vivian Ho is a health economist for Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy and the Baylor College School of Medicine.

• Dr. Karen Joynt Maddox is an assistant professor of medicine and co-director of the Center for Health Economics and Policy at Washington University in St. Louis.

To listen to the full conversation you can use the audio player above.

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