The degree of effectiveness of government interventions in healthcare market failure significantly depends on the presence of sufficient resources for making a change. For example, when speaking about the regulation of prices, such measures are critical for guaranteeing the availability of medications to citizens. According to Mensa et al. (2020), the clarity of control over corresponding operations is required, and only the authorities can guarantee its establishment in the long run. In addition, the healthcare objectives developed either on the federal or the state level cannot be introduced without an active participation of the government in the process. Also, the balance between innovation and prices is otherwise unattainable (Mensa et al., 2020). From this point of view, it can be stated that regular intervention of the countries in the field of healthcare and market segments in particular is effective in this case.
On the contrary, during crises, such as the ongoing pandemic, the feasibility of governments’ work in this respect is significantly diminished by the lack of funds and other resources for this purpose. As follows from the article, written by Williams (2020), the recent experience showed that similar healthcare market failures cannot be mitigated by the involvement of the authorities and the development of appropriate policies. The reason for this challenge is the deterioration of private medical services due to the increasing burden on state-funded facilities (Williams, 2020). In this way, all resources are redirected to a single area, which means that the effectiveness of the government in regulating the field as a whole is dubious under the specified circumstances. Therefore, this aspect can be assessed only when introducing additional conditions and examining the environment with its particular issues.
References
Mensa S. M., Davari, M., Abdollahi A. A., Soleymani, F., & Kebriaeezadeh, A. (2020). Why healthcare market needs government intervention to improve access to essential medicines and healthcare efficiency: A scoping review from pharmaceutical price regulation perspective. Journal of Pharmaceutical Health Services Research, 11(4), 321-333.
Williams, O. D. (2020). COVID-19 and private health: Market and governance failure. Development, 63(2), 181-190.