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.
This series from the NBER presents new research by leading economists on current health care policy issues. The papers in this seventh volume, originally presented at the annual Frontiers in Health Policy Research conference held in Washington D.C. in the summer of 2003, reflect the economic challenges faced by policymakers and health care professionals in an age of budget deficits. Topics discussed include prescription drug benefits as a stand-alone component of Medicare, disability rates and Medicare costs, and conversion to for-profit health plans.
Why, at the peak of the Jim Crow era early in the twentieth century, did life expectancy for African Americans rise dramatically? And why, when public officials were denying African Americans access to many other public services, did public water and sewer service for African Americans improve and expand? Using the qualitative and quantitative tools of demography, economics, geography, history, law, and medicine, Werner Troesken shows that the answers to these questions are closely connected.
This important series presents timely economic research on health care and health policy issues. Each volume contains papers from an annual conference of researchers, government officials, and policy experts held in Washington, D.C. Topics include the effects of health policy reforms, changes in health care organization and management, measurement of health outcomes, health care output and productivity, the role of health-related behavior, health and aging, health and children, and health care financing.
The healthcare industry in America consists of a multitude of specialty professions. While most of these require licensing through state agencies, the legislation involved largely rubber stamps the desires of the professional associations, self-perpetuating and self-regulating bodies that effectively impose restrictions on entry to the profession, type and location of practice, and advertising.
The war on terrorism and the threat of chemical and biological weapons have brought a new urgency to already complex moral and bioethical questions. In the Wake of Terror presents thought-provoking essays on many of the troubling issues facing American society, written by experts from the fields of medicine, health care policy, law, political science, history, philosophy, and theology.
From Malthus to Becker, the economic approach to population growth and its interactions with the surrounding economic environment has undergone a major transformation. Population Economics elucidates the theory behind this shift and the consequences for economic policy.Razin and Sadka systematically examine the microeconomic implications of people's decisions about how many children to have and how to provide for them on population trends and social issues of population policy.
This important series presents timely economic research on health care and health policy issues. Each volume contains papers from an annual conference held in Washington, D.C. Topics include the effects of health policy reforms, changes in health care organization and management, measurement of health outcomes, health care output and productivity, the role of health-related behavior, health and aging, health and children, and health care financing.
In recent decades, new pathogens such as HIV, the Ebola virus, and the BSE prion have emerged, while old scourges such as tuberculosis, cholera, and malaria have grown increasingly resistant to treatment. The global spread of disease does not threaten the human species, but it threatens the prosperity and stability of human societies.
Although managed health care is a hot topic, too few discussions focus on health care rationing—who lives and who dies, death versus dollars. In this book, physician and bioethicist Peter A. Ubel argues that physicians, health insurance companies, managed care organizations, and governments need to consider the cost-effectiveness of many new health care technologies. In particular, they need to think about how best to ration health care.
