Search Results
Conference Paper
The health care challenge: some perspectives from behavioral economics
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 ...
Conference Paper
Comments on Madrian’s “The U.S. Health Care System and Labor Markets”
This session will explore the impact of the U.S. health care system on U.S. labor markets. ; Why do employers believe that rising health care costs are a major cause for concern when economists insist that workers are the ones who actually bear the costs? What are the implications of large health care liabilities for the long-run viability of U.S. employers? How do rising health care costs affect employment and compensation decisions and labor mobility? Do behavioral insights shed any light on these issues?
Journal Article
Medicaid-the need for reform
Recent administration proposals to address the rising cost of Medicaid will do little to contain costs or truly reform the program. The primary issues are the large differences among state Medicaid programs in coverage and benefits and the programs high and rising costs. In this paper, we describe and develop several options for Medicaid reform that would expand coverage, provide fiscal relief to states, shift responsibility for some or all of the cost of dual eligibles to the federal government, and eliminate or restructure the disproportionate share programs. A number of other issues are ...
Conference Paper
Health financing: challenges and opportunities, coverage and cost
This policy panel will present and debate proposals for the next steps in reforming the U.S. health care system. Which challenge deserves the highest priority – providing universal access; instituting better measures of quality and outcomes and better management systems; or reining in costs? How should these challenges be addressed? What keeps us from "having it all"? Does the fundamental obstacle lie in market behavior, inadequate or asymmetric information, lack of political will, or the human psyche? How would the proposed reforms tackle the underlying issue and help us maintain a ...
Newsletter
The 2009 Health Care Leader Forum - a conference summary
On March 30?31, 2009, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and the Detroit Regional Chamber co-sponsored the third annual forum on health care. This year?s program focused on the role of employers in improving the health care system in terms of cost, quality, and accessibility.
Newsletter
U.S. health care insurance and the uninsured
With continuing increases in both health care spending and the number of Americans who are uninsured, everyone seems to have an opinion on how to rein in costs and provide better coverage. This month's Newsletter offers an overview of why costs are so high and what can be done to improve the situation.
Journal Article
Medical debt: a curable affliction health reform won’t fix
Medical illness and medical bills will continue to be leading causes of personal bankruptcy in the United States, even after health-care reform.
Conference Paper
Comments on Enthoven’s “The U.S. Experience with Managed Care and Managed Competition”
This session will provide an overview of the U.S. health care system with an emphasis on trends observed since the reforms of the early 1990s. ; How has the health care system adjusted to the introduction of market-oriented medicine? And what have been the consequences for access to care, health care costs (public and private), and the quality of care over the past decade? How does the U.S. health care system measure up in international comparisons, for instance? Does managed care work as its advocates expected or have inappropriate consumer and provider incentives undermined this experiment? ...
Report
Reforming the U. S. health care system: where there's a will, there could be a way
The essay in the 2005 annual report summarizes the themes and consensus-based prescriptions for action that emerged from the Boston Fed's 50th economic conference, Wanting It All: The Challenge of Reforming the U.S. Health Care System, held in June 2005.
Working Paper
Physician Payments Under Health Care Reform
This study assesses the impact of major health insurance reform in Massachusetts on the prices of services paid to physicians in the privately insured market. We estimate that the reform caused physician payments to increase at least 10.8 percentage points. This impact occurred while the legislation was materializing but before the final compromised version of the reform was enacted in April 2006. This finding is consistent with prices being set in a forward-looking manner, in anticipation of the reform. Overall, one-sixth of physician service price growth in Massachusetts between 2003 and ...