Reviving public provisioning in US health care

As new approaches of political economy gain ground in some sectors, American health care still reflects many aspects of neoliberalism. In this piece, we build on proposals to reorient health care policy around a new industrial policy for health. A core component of this strategy—and our focus here—is a revival of public provisioning of medical services and pharmaceuticals. Although less prevalent today, forms of public provisioning still exist in vital ways. These models demonstrate how public provisioning can not only address urgent capacity needs—it can promote local ownership, operate as a competitive public option that bolsters worker power, and assure societal return on public investments.