When the leading health economist speaks, it behooves others to listen. These lectures by Newhouse neatly and conclusively undermine the nostrums of both the right and the left. He shows why government regulation is cumbersome and inefficient and why knee-jerk appeals to markets ignore the myriad perils from asymmetric and incomplete information. Those who seek easy answers to hard problems will be disappointed. Those who demand a guide to clear thinking about matters of transcendent importance will be richly rewarded.
Henry J. Aaron, The Brookings Institution
The book is well crafted and comprehensive...an excellent overview of health care financing...
Nature Medicine
Just what I would expect from Newhouse—an elegant tour de force of the essential issues in health economics, technically top rate and at the same time extremely policy relevant. This book will be a wonderful asset to anybody interested in health economics, health policy, or the application of economic thinking to important public policy issues.
Charles E. Phelps, Professor of Economics and Community and Preventative Medicine, University of Rochester, Author of Health Economics
This book will appeal to a large audience, graduates and undergraduates as well as specialists. Difficult concepts are treated in straightforward language. Newhouse has made a particularly important contribution by providing clear descriptions of the workings of physician reimbursement and health insurance markets.
Frank Sloan, J. Alexander McMahon Professor of Health Policy and Management and Professor of Econonomics, Duke University
In Pricing the Priceless Joseph Newhouse provides the most comprehensive discussion of the pricing of health insurance and health care that I know of. This treatise deserves a wide audience.
Victor R. Fuchs, Henry J. Kaiser Professor Emeritus, Stanford University
An illuminating description of the wonderful world of medical services and health insurance pricing. Newhouse shows that prices do matter, and he links a discussion of how they matter to a cutting-edge examination of most of the important policy issues in medical economics. Economists with any interest in these peculiar markets should read this book, and health policymakers with a feeling that incentives and budgets matter must read it.
Mark V. Pauly, Bendheim Professor, Health Systems Department, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Winner of the 2003 Certificate of Excellence presented by the TIAA-CREF Institute.
