Download or read book Empirical Essays on Health Care Reform and Economic Well being written by Shilpa A. Londhe and published by . This book was released on 2016 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Communities in Action written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2017-04-27 with total page 583 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the United States, some populations suffer from far greater disparities in health than others. Those disparities are caused not only by fundamental differences in health status across segments of the population, but also because of inequities in factors that impact health status, so-called determinants of health. Only part of an individual's health status depends on his or her behavior and choice; community-wide problems like poverty, unemployment, poor education, inadequate housing, poor public transportation, interpersonal violence, and decaying neighborhoods also contribute to health inequities, as well as the historic and ongoing interplay of structures, policies, and norms that shape lives. When these factors are not optimal in a community, it does not mean they are intractable: such inequities can be mitigated by social policies that can shape health in powerful ways. Communities in Action: Pathways to Health Equity seeks to delineate the causes of and the solutions to health inequities in the United States. This report focuses on what communities can do to promote health equity, what actions are needed by the many and varied stakeholders that are part of communities or support them, as well as the root causes and structural barriers that need to be overcome.

Download or read book The Economics of Public Health Care Reform in Advanced and Emerging Economies written by Mr.David Coady and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2012-04-13 with total page 381 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using cross-country analysis and case studies, this book provides new insights and potential policy responses for the key fiscal policy challenges that both advanced and emerging economies will be facing.

Download or read book Essays in Health Economics and Health Policy written by Eun Young Kim and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 101 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation is a compilation of three essays. The first essay critiques a recent paper by Wilper et al. (2009) for its inappropriate model calibration in analyzing the association of health insurance and mortality. Using the individual-level data from a nationwide survey with more recent mortality follow-up information, it shows that the privately-insured do not significantly fare better in mortality risk compared to the uninsured. Moreover, hazard ratio estimate for the Medicaid suggests that public provision of insurance increases mortality. The second essay addresses the role of income in explaining the differential public health outcomes across developed countries. Noting that the growing arguments for socioeconomic gradient in health are based mostly on cross-sectional studies, panel analyses of five different public health outcomes are conducted. Results demonstrate that economic development remains critical in explaining health improvements at the aggregate level. The third essay analyzes the association of income and health care spending at the aggregate level. Using a large panel data from 24 industrialized nations for more than three decades, the close relationship between income and health care spending is established. In contrast to earlier cross-sectional studies, the panel analysis suggests that health expenditure growth is not as rapid as income growth in almost all nations.

Download or read book For Profit Enterprise in Health Care written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1986-01-01 with total page 580 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "[This book is] the most authoritative assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of recent trends toward the commercialization of health care," says Robert Pear of The New York Times. This major study by the Institute of Medicine examines virtually all aspects of for-profit health care in the United States, including the quality and availability of health care, the cost of medical care, access to financial capital, implications for education and research, and the fiduciary role of the physician. In addition to the report, the book contains 15 papers by experts in the field of for-profit health care covering a broad range of topicsâ€"from trends in the growth of major investor-owned hospital companies to the ethical issues in for-profit health care. "The report makes a lasting contribution to the health policy literature." â€"Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law.

Download or read book Essays on Health Care Markets written by Ami Ko and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The two chapters of my dissertation develop and estimate economic models to analyze the demand for and the provision of health care services. Specifically, I analyze the optimal design of health care markets to promote higher quality and lower cost, which can have profound implications for the well-being of people. The first chapter, "An Equilibrium Analysis of the Long-Term Care Insurance Market," uses a model of family interactions to explain why the long-term care insurance market has not been growing. By developing and estimating a structural model of family interactions, I study how family care affects the workings of the long-term care insurance market. I argue that private information about the availability of family care induces adverse selection where individuals with limited access to family care heavily select into insurance coverage. I demonstrate that pricing on family demographics substantially mitigates adverse selection by reducing the amounts of private information. I propose child demographic-based pricing as an alternative risk adjustment that could decrease the average premium, invigorate the market, and generate welfare gains. The second chapter, "Partial Rating Area Offering in the ACA Marketplaces," joint with Hanming Fang, studies insurance companies' plan offering decisions in the marketplaces established by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (ACA). Under the ACA, insurance companies can vary premiums by "rating areas" which usually consist of multiple counties. In a given rating area, the ACA mandates uniform pricing for all counties, but, it does not mandate universal offering. We first demonstrate that it is not uncommon to observe insurance companies selling plans to only a subset of counties within a rating area. Using both theoretical and empirical approaches, we find evidence that partial rating area coverage is explained by insurers' incentive to risk screen consumers. While the ACA allows price discrimination based on rating areas and not on counties, we argue that insurers are effectively price discriminating consumers based on counties by endogenously determining their service area within a rating area.

Download or read book Essays in Development Economics written by Diana Kim Lee and published by . This book was released on 2014 with total page 110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Poverty and health are two topics in the field of development economics that are of critical importance to both researchers and policy-makers. Despite advances in poverty alleviation and gains in health outcomes in many developing countries, many challenges remain. Two of these challenges include accurately measuring poverty and improving the quality of health care delivery systems. In this dissertation, I present three essays with theoretical, empirical, and policy-relevant insights into these two challenges. The first essay addresses the issue of accurate poverty measurement by developing a new asset index that captures long run household economic well-being. The accurate measurement of household well-being is necessary for measuring poverty levels and targeting poverty programs. However, since standard expenditure aggregates are costly to collect, relative well-being in developing countries is often measured using asset indices based on durable goods ownership. Although various methods exist to generate proxies for economic well-being (e.g., principal component analysis), the underlying theories associated with these methods have not been formalized. This makes it difficult to interpret the economic meaning of the resulting indices and can lead to inaccurate targeting and evaluation. In this paper, I develop a new asset index, the utility index, by modeling and structurally estimating household preferences over discrete assets. By drawing from economic theory, the utility index can be more directly interpreted as capturing long run household well-being. In contrast to existing asset indices, the utility index incorporates additional information on prices, demographics, and spatial and temporal variation and can therefore be used for policy simulations that are not otherwise possible. After developing the theoretical model, I describe a strategy to construct the utility index by structurally estimating the marginal utility associated with each asset. I then demonstrate how the utility index can be used by measuring changes in poverty in Nicaragua using data from the Living Standards Measurement Surveys. I also use the model to project changes in poverty under a constant income distribution but changing prices and find that about a third of the poverty decrease measured from 1998 to 2005 can be attributed to decreasing asset prices. In addition, I show through the empirical analysis that traditional asset indices are only moderate approximations for household well-being. Finally, I discuss and demonstrate the distinctions between asset and consumption measures, which point to the complementary nature of the two strands of measurement. The second essay presents an alternate approach for improving accurate poverty measurement in developing countries. Although the utility index developed in the first essay presents a method for measuring long run economic well-being, complementary measures of short run welfare are necessary for identifying households which are vulnerable to falling into transitory poverty. Again, given the expenses associated with collecting full consumption data, researchers have developed methods to construct wealth indices based on dichotomous asset and consumption indicators. This work provides guidance on generating such indices by comparing across various methods of construction and variable choices. Specifically, we assess the performance of alternate indices using data from the Living Standards Measurement Surveys in five countries in Sub-Saharan Africa--Ghana, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, and Malawi. We compare indices against a benchmark of household per capita expenditure according to three criteria: rank correlation coefficients, sensitivity to identifying poor households, and accuracy of classifying households as poor or non-poor. Comparing across construction methods, we find that indices generated using principal components analysis correspond most closely with expenditure, though variation across construction methods is small. Comparing across variable inclusion groups, we find that indices generated using a combination of indicators drawn from the categories of staple food consumption, other food consumption, housing quality, semi-durables expenditure, and durables ownership tend to outperform indices generated using variables from only one or two categories. We also assess the various indices in urban and rural subsamples and in analyses of repeated cross-sections and find that index performance is similar to what we find in national, single wave analyses. The third essay turns to the challenge of improving the quality of health care delivery systems by looking at provider investment decisions. Pay-for-performance (P4P) programs, which aim to increase health service provision and quality using financial incentives, have been recently introduced in a number of developing countries. P4P programs contract directly on outputs without specifying the mechanisms for improvements, allowing providers to innovate and modify different aspects of health care delivery as needed. Characterizing these provider responses can help to identify successful mechanisms for quality improvement and enhance our understanding of the links between P4P and overall health systems strengthening. In this paper, we examine provider input responses to the Rwandan P4P program using facility-level data from the 2007 Demographic and Health Survey Service Provision Assessment (SPA) collected after the randomized program rollout to a subset of districts. We focus on facility-level incentives for institutional deliveries, which, as documented in earlier research, resulted in higher institutional delivery rates. Using the SPA facility data, we find that the program's effect on institutional delivery rates is comparable to results in previous studies that used household surveys. Comparing system inputs, we find positive treatment effects for a general management indicator and the daily presence of staff per capita providing maternity-related services. There are no differences in other delivery-specific and general health care delivery inputs. Additionally, we perform a mediation analysis to assess the link between inputs and outcomes and find that management and staffing differences explain a relatively small fraction of the P4P effect on institutional delivery rates. The small mediation effects indicate the potential importance of unobserved factors, such as recruitment effort, in the provider production function. Furthermore, the null results for the other analyzed inputs suggest a weaker link between P4P and overall health system strengthening.

Download or read book Super Inequality Theoretical Essays in Economics and Social Policy written by Christian Aspalter and published by Springer. This book was released on 2023-09-27 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book bridges the disciplines of micro-economics and social policy in general, and, in particular, behavioral/explanatory social policy and public choice theory, plus Leibenstein’s X-efficiency theory. Being trained as an economist and social policy scientist, the author leaps out of the comfort zone of most social policy scientists and experts, right into the exciting world of micro-economic theory, and then extending and connecting those theories to explain major social, political and economic conundrums of our time. In doing so, the book offers a new set of theoretical—and practical—explanations derived from the general proposition of micro-economic theory, of how government officers, policymakers, administrators and the people themselves alike are, by and large, motivated in their daily as well as strategic (long-term) decision-making. Using a meta-analytical approach (based on a number of grand theories), this book also explains systemic factors behind human behavior and the thereof resulting shortcomings in lifetime outcomes (health, wealth and happiness of a person) and at the same time societal, policy-making, and economic outcomes on societal level, and in global comparison. The outcomes thereof can be measured exactly (and hence validated), especially through the method of empirical comparative social science/economic research. Here, the author also (but not only) introduces the new method of using Aspalter's Standardized Relative Performance (SRP) Index in measuring exactly complex, aggregate performances of multiple governments, and that at the same time also across the entire world.

Download or read book Three Essays on the Economics of Health and Well Being written by Paul J. Spin and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This dissertation offers three vignettes on the determinants of health and well-being over the life course. The first essay uses multiple Canadian census files to document the longterm effects of potential in utero exposure to the 1918 flu pandemic on educational attainment. This study finds that those who were in utero during the peak of the pandemic, particularly in their first or second trimesters, experienced long-term deficits in their educational attainment. The second study explores the potential impact of spousal institutionalization in nursing homes/residential care facilities on elderly financial security. It shows that the absence of fully funded universal long-term care insurance (like Canadian medicare) places married seniors at risk of significant losses in their material standards of living and low income status. The third paper examines the impact of online communication and social media use on subjective well-being (SWB). In one empirical approach, I find that those who communicate online or use social media report lower levels of SWB. This is especially true for older adults and social media. In a separate quasi-experimental analysis that exploits variation in access to and use of social media by time, age group, and access to personal computers, I find that social media may be responsible for increased political engagement and social trust.

Download or read book Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries written by Dean T. Jamison and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2006-04-02 with total page 1449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Based on careful analysis of burden of disease and the costs ofinterventions, this second edition of 'Disease Control Priorities in Developing Countries, 2nd edition' highlights achievable priorities; measures progresstoward providing efficient, equitable care; promotes cost-effectiveinterventions to targeted populations; and encourages integrated effortsto optimize health. Nearly 500 experts - scientists, epidemiologists, health economists,academicians, and public health practitioners - from around the worldcontributed to the data sources and methodologies, and identifiedchallenges and priorities, resulting in this integrated, comprehensivereference volume on the state of health in developing countries.

Download or read book Moral Hazard in Health Insurance written by Amy Finkelstein and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2014-12-02 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Addressing the challenge of covering heath care expenses—while minimizing economic risks. Moral hazard—the tendency to change behavior when the cost of that behavior will be borne by others—is a particularly tricky question when considering health care. Kenneth J. Arrow’s seminal 1963 paper on this topic (included in this volume) was one of the first to explore the implication of moral hazard for health care, and Amy Finkelstein—recognized as one of the world’s foremost experts on the topic—here examines this issue in the context of contemporary American health care policy. Drawing on research from both the original RAND Health Insurance Experiment and her own research, including a 2008 Health Insurance Experiment in Oregon, Finkelstein presents compelling evidence that health insurance does indeed affect medical spending and encourages policy solutions that acknowledge and account for this. The volume also features commentaries and insights from other renowned economists, including an introduction by Joseph P. Newhouse that provides context for the discussion, a commentary from Jonathan Gruber that considers provider-side moral hazard, and reflections from Joseph E. Stiglitz and Kenneth J. Arrow. “Reads like a fireside chat among a group of distinguished, articulate health economists.” —Choice

Download or read book Impact of Health Insurance in Low and Middle income Countries written by Maria-Luisa Escobar and published by Brookings Institution Press. This book was released on 2010 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the past twenty years, many low- and middle-income countries have experimented with health insurance options. While their plans have varied widely in scale and ambition, their goals are the same: to make health services more affordable through the use of public subsidies while also moving care providers partially or fully into competitive markets. Until now, however, we have known little about the actual effects of these dramatic policy changes. Understanding the impact of health insurance-based care is key to the public policy debate of whether to extend insurance to low-income populationsand if so, how to do itor to serve them through other means.

Download or read book The Future of the Public s Health in the 21st Century written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2003-02-01 with total page 536 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The anthrax incidents following the 9/11 terrorist attacks put the spotlight on the nation's public health agencies, placing it under an unprecedented scrutiny that added new dimensions to the complex issues considered in this report. The Future of the Public's Health in the 21st Century reaffirms the vision of Healthy People 2010, and outlines a systems approach to assuring the nation's health in practice, research, and policy. This approach focuses on joining the unique resources and perspectives of diverse sectors and entities and challenges these groups to work in a concerted, strategic way to promote and protect the public's health. Focusing on diverse partnerships as the framework for public health, the book discusses: The need for a shift from an individual to a population-based approach in practice, research, policy, and community engagement. The status of the governmental public health infrastructure and what needs to be improved, including its interface with the health care delivery system. The roles nongovernment actors, such as academia, business, local communities and the media can play in creating a healthy nation. Providing an accessible analysis, this book will be important to public health policy-makers and practitioners, business and community leaders, health advocates, educators and journalists.

Download or read book Beyond the HIPAA Privacy Rule written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2009-03-24 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the realm of health care, privacy protections are needed to preserve patients' dignity and prevent possible harms. Ten years ago, to address these concerns as well as set guidelines for ethical health research, Congress called for a set of federal standards now known as the HIPAA Privacy Rule. In its 2009 report, Beyond the HIPAA Privacy Rule: Enhancing Privacy, Improving Health Through Research, the Institute of Medicine's Committee on Health Research and the Privacy of Health Information concludes that the HIPAA Privacy Rule does not protect privacy as well as it should, and that it impedes important health research.

Download or read book Equity and Well Being written by Hyun Hwa Son and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-04-03 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Equity is an abstract concept covering philosophical issues such as fairness and social justice, making its definition and measurement complex. This volume tackles these complexities head-on. The book is enriched with many empirical analyses and provides a comprehensive analysis of equity ranging from concepts and measurements to empirical illustrations and policy implications. After an extensive discussion on equity in the introduction, this volume begins with a chapter on well-being where the concepts of functioning and capability are discussed. This is followed by a few chapters on what an equitable distribution is and how equity can be measured. The volume then provides a definition and a methodology to measure equitable growth, examining the relationship between growth, inequality, and poverty. It also presents various empirical illustrations and country-specific experiences with three country case studies which assess whether publicly provided health and education services are equitable in developing Asia, examining the extent to which these social services favor the poor as well as the policy challenges to a more equitable delivery of these services. Finally, these country studies provide evidence–based policy recommendations to improve equity in social service delivery in developing countries. Achieving social equity has long been an important policy goal. There are relatively few studies on equity. This book aims to help fill this gap with an in-depth analysis of the issues associated with equity, covering its concept, measurement, and policy practices and implications.

Download or read book The Fragmentation of U S Health Care written by Einer Elhauge and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2010 with total page 397 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why is the American health care system so fragmented in the care it gives patients? This title approaches this question and more with a highly interdisciplinary approach. The articles included in the work address legal and regulatory issues, including laws that mandate separate payments for each provider.

Download or read book Priced Out written by Uwe E. Reinhardt and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-09 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Uwe Reinhardt was a towering figure and moral conscience of health care policy in the United States and beyond. Famously bipartisan, he advised presidents and Congress on health reform and originated central features of the Affordable Care Act. In Priced Out, Reinhardt offers an engaging and enlightening account of today's U.S. health care system, explaining why it costs so much more and delivers so much less than the systems of every other advanced country, why this situation is morally indefensible, and how we might improve it.