The article that I have selected for this discussion is written by David Brodwin and deals with the prospects of annulling the Obamacare and how the United States healthcare has turned out to be a major market failure. The author has stated in the article that the Republicans’ efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act or most commonly known as Obamacare would drastically affect the poor working class and millions would become uninsured. The author has also described that the US healthcare system is a market failure as it costs more than what it is meant to deliver and on the top of that no government has ever tried to focus on the restructuring of the healthcare system.
In my opinion, the writer has rightly highlighted the significant flaws of the American healthcare system. Despite of the fact that the US is spending almost 17 percent of GDP on health care, the desired outcomes are not being achieved. The treatment costs are still high and no improvement could be seen regarding the infant mortality, average life span, disability etc. There is an immense need to make the health care affordable for all citizens and for that effective policies should be made instead of just dealing with the taxes and coverage in healthcare.
However, if we look at the article from a learner’s perspective, the content can somewhat be applied to what we have learned. For instance, we can clearly understand that healthcare in US is a market failure because as per the definition it has failed to provide the desired outcomes. Another factor that leads to the market failure is the asymmetric information in the healthcare. The patients are usually not aware of the cost at the time of their medical treatment and are later told by their insurance company. And most importantly, if the Obamacare would be annulled, the American Corporations would be the most affected. The uninsured would still go to the hospitals for treatment and as a result the hospitals would increase the costs of treatment that would automatically make the health insurance companies to raise their rates and eventually America’s businesses would “get the bill”.

Article Reference:
Brodwin, D. (2017, June 23). Health Care Is a Market Failure. US News. Retrieved from https://www.usnews.com/opinion/economic-intelligence/articles/2017-06-23/senate-obamacare-repeal-plan-ignores-market-failure-of-us-health-care?context=amp