Search Results
Journal Article
Health insurance costs and declining coverage
The share of health-care spending in GDP has been rising rapidly in the United States and other advanced industrial countries since at least 1960. As Jones (2005) and others have argued, the rapid increase in the price of medical care likely is demand-driven to a large degree, reflecting the high value that consumers in wealthy countries assign to medical technologies that improve the quality of life and extend its duration. ; A potential flipside to rising health-care costs, however, is declining health-care coverage. As documented in a recent report from the U.S. Census Bureau (DeNavas-Walt ...
Journal Article
Lessons from variations in state Medicaid expenditures
Because Medicaid is absorbing a large and growing share of government spending in every state, policymakers are under intense pressure to control the cost of this budget-breaking program. In search of clues concerning Medicaid cost containment, this article examines state data on per-recipient Medicaid spending by type of service. This effort suggests focusing on nursing homes, because per-recipient payments to these institutions are highly variable across states. Indeed, the article concludes that a key explanation for cross-state differences in per-recipient Medicaid expenses is the ...
Journal Article
Public-private cost shifts in nursing home care
This article presents estimates of the degree to which individuals paying privately for nursing home services are being asked to subsidize their states Medicaid program. Recently published data permit making some first rough estimates of the extent of this activity. Although these crude measures must be interpreted with great care, the data suggest that cost-shifting activity is widespread and sizable. ; Because, as the article shows, cost-shifting activity undermines policy makers efforts to regulate nursing home costs, the article suggests that private patients should not be asked to ...
Journal Article
You are what you reimburse
What drives capital spending in health care? Follow the money.
Journal Article
Building healthier communities from the ground up
This issue of Banking and Community Perspectives focuses on some nonlegislative efforts to foster healthier communities, particularly in low- and moderate-income areas. These efforts are led by both public and private organizations across the Federal Reserve's Eleventh District.