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Challenges in Designing Equitable Public Options

One of the aspirations of a public option is to expand equality and opportunity by offering universal access to a good or service at an affordable price. But in practice, public options are not always equitable and inclusive, and people of color, the poor, the less-educated, and rural residents are often on the losing end. Policymakers who want public options to live up to the promise of expanding equality and opportunity therefore need to think seriously about the challenges that prevent public options from achieving those aims. Some of these challenges stem from the structure of the public options themselves, which can be designed in ways that advance or constrict equality and opportunity. Others will require broader reforms to politics and the allocation of power. Understanding the broader context is essential in designing public options that can advance inclusionary goals. In this chapter, we identify six challenges in designing equitable public options. The elements on our list are not mutually exclusive; barriers to equity are often compounded, with two or more operating at the same time within the same area of public policy. Nor is our list of six exhaustive; we make no claim that these are the only challenges to designing equitable public options. But we hope that this list can be a starting point for policymakers and scholars to anticipate the factors that prevent public options from being equity-enhancing and, as a result, to develop solutions.