Rationing Publicly Provided Goods

    There are two ways of making a good or service available to the public. One is government providing the good or service by executive or legislative action. An example is the Affordable Care Act that Congress passed in 2010 to provide access to health insurance. The other is by private firms supplying goods and services through the market. As Hyman (2021) notes, “Goods with benefits that cannot be withheld from those who do not pay and are shared by large groups of consumers are public goods” (p. 126). A pure public good, as explained by Hyman (2021), is nonrivalrous and non-excludable (pp. 127–143). For example, national defense is nonrivalrous because the amount of defense that one person enjoys does not diminish the amount of defense his neighbor enjoys, whereas clean air is nonexcludable because it is not possible to exclude a person from enjoying its benefits. Impure public goods do not meet these criteria perfectly. On the other side of this, public transit is an impure public good since it is both price-excludable and congestible (rivalrous). A person who cannot pay the fare is excluded, and a crowded bus may pass by a person. Impure public goods are rationed in a variety of ways. In the case of riding the bus, the good is rationed by charging fares. Sometimes express buses charge a higher fare. The government rations many publicly provided private goods and impure public goods. Healthcare, as available through the national health services of Britain and Canada, is an example of a publicly provided private good that is rationed. Healthcare, when privately financed, is rationed by price; the patient receives a specified level of benefits. When publicly financed, the patient gets what will be allowed by the public agency overseeing distribution of the benefit. Consider this example in preparation for this week’s Discussion. By Day 3 Post by Day 3 an analysis of government rationing for one of the following public programs: Public Higher Education in Nigeria, the National Health Service in the United Kingdom, and the National Park Service in the United States. Your analysis should include the following: A description of how each public program is rationed by the government An analysis of possible impact(s) of alternative rationing systems for each public program At least one example of governmental rationing from your personal/professional experience