Opinion: The government should cover coronavirus testing. And conservatives should support it.
Libertarians? Support a government-run health-care program? Why yes, because controlling infectious disease is a genuine public good. By which I don’t mean “something I think the public should pay for.”
A true public good, as economists define it, is something like a lighthouse or national defense: It benefits almost everyone, and it’s hard to exclude anyone from those benefits. If the fine people of Maine establish a militia to fight off invading Canadians, everyone benefits, but states farther south might be sorely tempted to let Mainers foot the bill. Those sorts of goods justify taxation to even the most stringent libertarians.
This goalpost moving has given libertarians and many conservatives an understandable allergy to programs sold under the rubric of public health. But although many of the things called “public health” aren’t all that public, stopping a respiratory disease with a potentially high fatality rate indisputably is. And to do so, screening and treating the sick need to be made as easy as possible.
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