| Results
that no one expected
by Robert C. Powell III
Virginia Business
May 2005
Unintended consequences are the side effects that
no one anticipates. Sometimes the outcome is momentous.
Robert E. Lee, for example, was hunting for shoes,
not the Union army, when he sent a band of soldiers
to Gettysburg. The result was a battle that turned
the tide of the Civil War.
While this issue of Virginia
Business doesn’t
deal with the fate of the nation, the theme of unintended
consequences runs through several articles. Contributing
writer Marjolijn Bijlefeld finds that, in trying to
provide health care for the poor, Medicaid
programs in Virginia and other states have the
unintended effect of raising everyone’s cost
of care. The gap between what Medicaid pays and what
services actually cost is passed on to businesses,
private-pay patients and their insurance companies.
In a similar fashion, planning decisions made in Fairfax
County 30 years ago had the unintended effect
of encouraging sprawl in the suburban county. Contributing
writer Brett Lieberman says the county now is trying
to accommodate growth by promoting high-density development
around Metro stops.
Insurance brokers, on
the other hand, are concerned about the possible consequences
of regulations that are largely still on the drawing
board. Contributing writer Joan Tupponce reports that
these proposed regulations are aimed at deterring abuses
in the business. But some brokers worry that all will
suffer because of the sins of a few.
Lastly, unintended consequences
also can be seen in contributing writer Bill Geroux’s
report on the Hampton Roads economy.
The region has benefited from increased defense spending
in the past four years, but it now may see the other
side of the sword because of base closings and other
military cutbacks.
One final note about this issue: You will find a
new feature, Reporter’s
Notebook, in the back of the magazine. Our plan
is provide a home for interesting bits of news we come
across in covering stories across the state. The unintended
consequences of such a feature are yet to be discovered.
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