Allocating Scarce Resources at the Policy Level The Harris County Coal Company operates 10 small mines in West Virginia with an average of 30 miners each. Congress is considering revising the Affordable Care Act to create a single-payer, national health insurance program. It would provide government-financed health care for all with a provision that the insured pay the first $50 in any given year. Within the past year, scientists have developed a number of techniques to minimize the effect of coal dust on miners, who develop black lung disease from prolonged exposure. The problem is that the most effective prevention techniques are expensive. They required both massive ventilation systems and also costly hourly monitoring of the air quality throughout the mine. Analysts estimated the full prevention program would cost $7,500 per miner. The mine workers' union demanded that the company initiate the program, but recognized that small-scale mines, such as those run by Harris, were marginal operations. The added cost, according to management, would close the mines. By coincidence, a government study has just shown that the predicted cost to the government for treatment of black lung disease from the mine under present conditions would also be about $7,500 per