The Symptoms of Failure: Diagnosing Bad Policy

Doctors have a hard job. They are expected to observe a diverse collection of physical symptoms, and, using their knowledge of medicine, correctly diagnose the patient.

Government policies are a lot like the human body: they can be sound, or, far more often, they can be sick. And just like doctors, we can diagnose this sickness by examining the external features of the policy in order to deduce a conclusion.

Few policies these days are so obviously under the weather as President Obama’s signature legislative achievement, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. As we enter the second year of ACA enrollments, we, as responsible diagnosticians, have taken the time to outline some of the symptoms of a broken policy, and the ways in which they apply to ObamaCare.