The health care industry differs from most other industries in that medical pricing is primarily administered by the government and private insurers and in that it uses several types of contracts. Providers may receive a fixed sum for all necessary services within a given period of time, for the necessary services to treat a given condition, or for each specific service. The industry is changing dramatically, offering many natural experiments to aid understanding of the economics of pricing for health care. In Pricing the Priceless, Joseph Newhouse explains the different pricing systems and how they affect resource allocation and efficiency, focusing on the efficiency of pricing. He also discusses larger issues of equity, fair distribution of burden, and social justice. Although most of the examples are American-based, the same issues arise in all medical care financing and delivery systems, and the theories and models are general enough to apply to many institutional contexts. The topics include Medicare, managed care, the contemporary integration of health insurance and medical care, the management of moral hazard and stinting, uncertainty and risk aversion, the demand for health insurance, agency relationships, information disparities, regulation, and supply-side and demand-side selection.
From 1971 to 1982, researchers at the RAND Corporation devised an experiment to address two key questions in health care financing: how much more medical care will people use if it is provided free of charge? and what are the consequences for their health? This book presents a comprehensive account of the experiment and its findings. It will be an invaluable teaching tool and reference for anyone concerned with health-care policy.
The health care industry differs from most other industries in that medical pricing is primarily administered by the government and private insurers and in that it uses several types of contracts. Providers may receive a fixed sum for all necessary services within a given period of time, for the necessary services to treat a given condition, or for each specific service. The industry is changing dramatically, offering many natural experiments to aid understanding of the economics of pricing for health care. In Pricing the Priceless, Joseph Newhouse explains the different pricing systems and how they affect resource allocation and efficiency, focusing on the efficiency of pricing. He also discusses larger issues of equity, fair distribution of burden, and social justice. Although most of the examples are American-based, the same issues arise in all medical care financing and delivery systems, and the theories and models are general enough to apply to many institutional contexts. The topics include Medicare, managed care, the contemporary integration of health insurance and medical care, the management of moral hazard and stinting, uncertainty and risk aversion, the demand for health insurance, agency relationships, information disparities, regulation, and supply-side and demand-side selection.
In the most important health insurance study ever conducted researchers at the RAND Corporation devised all experiment to address two key questions in health care financing: how much more medical care will people use if it is provided free of charge, and what are the consequences for their health? For three- or five-year periods the experiment measured both use and health outcomes in populations carefully selected to be representative of both urban and rural regions throughout the United States. Participants were enrolled in a range of insurance plans requiring different levels of copayment for medical care, from zero to 95 percent. The researchers found that in plans that reimbursed a higher proportion of the bill, patients used substantially more services - indeed, those who paid nothing used 40 percent more services than those required to pay a high deductible - but the effect on the health of the average person was negligible. In addition, participants who were assigned at random to a well-established health maintenance organization used hospitals substantially less than those in the fee-for-service system, again with no measurable effect on the health of the average person. This book collects in one place for the first time results previously dispersed through many journals over many years. Drawing comprehensive, coherent conclusions from an immense amount of data, it is destined to be a classic work serving as an invaluable reference for all those concerned with health care policy - health service researchers, policymakers in both the public and the private sectors, and students.
A Brookings Institution Press and Visions of Governance for the 21st Century publication Changing markets are challenging governance. The growing scale, reach, complexity, and popular legitimacy of market institutions and market players are re-opening old questions about the role of the public sector and redefining what it means to govern well. This volume—the latest publication from the Visions of Governance in the 21st Century program at the Kennedy School of Government—explores the way evolving markets alter the pursuit of cherished public goals. John D. Donahue and Joseph S. Nye, Jr. frame the inquiry with an essay on governing well in an age of ascendant markets. Other contributors (all from Harvard's Kennedy School unless otherwise indicated) address specific areas of market governance in individual chapters: Joseph P. Newhouse on the medical marketplace, Jose Gomez-Ibañez and John R. Meyer on transportation, William Hogan on electric power, Paul E. Peterson on K–12 education, L. Jean Camp on information networks, Akash Deep and Guido Schaefer (Vienna University of Economics & Business Administration) on federal deposit insurance, Frederick Schauer on "the marketplace of ideas," Anna Greenberg on the "marketization" of politics, David M. Hart on the politics of high-tech industry, Viktor Mayer-Schönberger on information law, John D. Donahue and Richard J. Zeckhauser on the challenges posed by fast-changing markets, and Mark Moore on the spread of market ideology.
Thank you for visiting our website. Would you like to provide feedback on how we could improve your experience?
This site does not use any third party cookies with one exception — it uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic.Learn More.