MLI Research Advisory Board member, William Watson, writes on healthcare systems in today’s Financial Post. In another debunking of the notion that “big is better”, he has a common sense prescription for what ails the delivery of health services here in Canada and abroad.
Big systems like that have to be run from the ground up. As Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises argued long ago, the information requirements for running them are simply overwhelming to any central decision-maker — a fact our subsequent acquisition of powerful computers does not alter.
The only solution is to drench the systems with competition and let the people on the ground respond to the incentives it produces. If people want doctors to work on the weekends, and we do, we’re going to have to make it worth their while to do so. The easiest way is directly, through a market.
Posted by George Young
