Conference Paper

The health care challenge: some perspectives from behavioral economics

Abstract: National health care goals generally include providing broad access to appropriate amounts of high-quality health care at appropriate cost to the ultimate payers. Yet all countries, regardless of how they deliver and finance health care, struggle to achieve a sustainable balance among the implicit tradeoffs. Does this struggle stem from the limited scope for competition in health care or from information asymmetries? Or does it simply reflect the inherent difficulty of measuring health care output and quality? Alternatively, does it result from deep-seated human behavior - a tendency for individuals to postpone saving, say, or for the utility of health care to shift over time? What are the implications for reform?

Keywords: Health care reform;

Status: Published in Wanting it all: the challenge of reforming the U. S. health care system

Bibliographic Information

Provider: Federal Reserve Bank of Boston

Part of Series: Conference Series ; [Proceedings]

Publication Date: 2005

Volume: 50

Issue: Jun

Pages: 61-75