ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the way that a range of economic structures affect the provision of health care. Beginning with an absolute free market, and then considering market-based insurance plans, government regulated insurance systems, and finally a single-payer, government provided system of health care, it considers how well each system can meet the basic considerations of an ethics of care. A true free market in health care can provide a wide range of low-level services, many of them quite cheaply, but it cannot provide the majority of needed health care because the costs are simply too great for most individuals to afford. It also leaves the individual patient too vulnerable to quackery and exploitation. More regulated systems are better at providing a full range of needed care, but the regulations themselves can be problematic from the perspective of an ethics of care if they make the relationship between patient and caregivers too bureaucratic or complicated.
