How can public policy improve upon and fix the mess of U.S. health care? In a new book, health economists Amy Finkelstein (MIT) and Liran Einav (Stanford) argue that's the wrong question. Instead, they suggest we ask: What is it that U.S. health policy should try to accomplish?

Finkelstein, also a MacArthur Genius grantee, joins Bethany and Luigi to discuss health care as a social commitment and to make the case for free, automatic, and universal coverage for a basic set of medical services. She argues why the current patchwork system of incremental reforms isn't the answer, why insurance is not the lever to reduce racial disparities in health inequality, and why we must “tear down the system and build from the ground up.

”Finkelstein and Einav's new book, "We've Got You Covered: Rebooting American Health Care," is out now.

Show Notes: On ProMarket, read:

1. Lowering the Barriers to Entry for Economics Research in Healthcare, by Filippo Lancieri
2. Rethinking How To Achieve Universal Health Care Coverage in the U.S., by Katherine Baicker, Amitabh Chandra, and Mark Shepard
3. More Than 20 Years of Consolidation Have Led to a Dysfunctional Health Care Market, by Martin Gaynor
4. The Secret Driver of U.S. Health Care Costs: Politicians Wanting to Get Reelected, by Asher Schechter