Health care is widely regarded as a special kind of good that requires an especially high degree of government involvement. The central arguments of this book, based on studies of the health systems of Australia, New Zealand, and America, are :

-          Health care is more efficient where producers are subjected to a competitive environment and consumers can work our their preferences on the basis of a range of fully-costed alternatives;

-          Government intervention should be limited to public health issues (quarantine regulations, infectious diseases, etc.), subsidies for health research, and a safety-net for the worst-off;

-          As demonstrated by recent developments in America, producers and consumers of health care and health insurance operating in a competitive environment can be extremely imaginative and resourceful in finding ways of containing costs.

Health is indeed a special kind of good: it is too important to be subjected to the inefficiencies and distortions that flow from governments’ attempts to supply goods when they are not properly equipped to do so.