This paper reviews the arguments which can justify government intervention in health care and health insurance. It is shown that moral hazard or adverse selection do not appear to justify public intervention. The two main arguments in favor of public health insurance appear to be its lower...

It is often argued that implicit taxation on continued activity of elderly workers is responsible for the widely observed trend towards early retirement. In a world of laissez-faire or of first-best efficiency, there would be no such implicit taxation. This raises the question of whether a bias...