The health care field is currently experiencing a great deal of change, including advances in medical technology, the development of new health care financing mechanisms, and the transformation of organizational arrangements. This text studies the health care system in the US, and selected other countries, through the lens of economics and policy. It presents numerous real-world examples and biographies of key figures in order to help students to grasp the importance and relevance of health reform and health policy issues. The book conveys the essence of current reform issues in the US, and places them in a global comparative context. This accessible book will be key reading for advanced undergraduates in public health and students in health-related graduate courses, including those that come to the subject without much prior knowledge of health economics or other policy methods.

In this book, Phelps and Parente explore the US health care system and set out the case for its reform. They trace the foundations of today’s system, and show how distortions in the incentives facing participants in the health care market could be corrected in order to achieve lower costs, a higher quality of care, a higher level of patient safety, and a more efficient allocation of health care resources. Phelps and Parente propose novel yet economically robust changes to US tax law affecting health insurance coverage and related issues. They also discuss a series of specific improvements to Medicare and Medicaid, and assess potential innovations that affect all of health care, including chronic disease management, fraud and abuse detection, information technology, and other key issues. The Economics of US Health Care Policy will be illuminating reading for anyone with an interest in health policy, and will be a valuable supplementary text for courses in health economics and health policy, including for students without advanced training in economics.

Designed as a primary text for courses in health care economics and policy analysis, this comprehensive work places the issues and economic analysis of the health care industry in the context of market forces driving the industry, including negotiated markets, managed care, and the growing influence of oligopolies. Written in accessible prose, without the aid of technical jargon and mathematical formulations, the content is rich with applicable, understandable economic concepts and analysis, and examples of market failure and government involvement. Some of the major policy issues covered are drug pricing, Medicare and Medicaid reform, the medically uninsured, for-profit hospital monopoly price power, managed care competitive pricing, and new negotiated markets. The relevant economic concepts employed in the text include price elasticity of demand/supply, market structure from competitive to oligopolistic markets, monopoly pricing power, measures of health care inflation and the biases of the CPI, demand and supply factors, inverse relationship of present health care expenditures as a percentage of GDP, measures/concepts of efficiency, and the role of government in a market era.

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.

"A graphic explanation of the PPACA act"--Provided by publisher.

The health care field is currently experiencing a great deal of change, including advances in medical technology, the development of new health care financing mechanisms, and the transformation of organizational arrangements. This text studies the health care system in the US, and selected other countries, through the lens of economics and policy. It presents numerous real world examples and biographies of key figures in order to help students to grasp the importance and relevance of health reform and health policy issues. The book conveys the essence of current reform issues in the US, and places them in a global comparative context. The accessible book will be key reading for advanced undergraduates in public health and students in health related graduate courses, including those that come to the subject without much prior knowledge of health economics or other policy methods.

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.