Moral Hazard in Health Insurance

Moral Hazard in Health Insurance
Author: Amy Finkelstein
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Total Pages: 161
Release: 2014-12-02
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0231538685

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

The Theory of Demand for Health Insurance

The Theory of Demand for Health Insurance
Author: John A. Nyman
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2003
Genre: Health & Fitness
ISBN: 9780804744881

Why do people buy health insurance? Conventional theory holds that people purchase insurance because they prefer the certainty of paying a small premium to the risk of getting sick and paying a large medical bill. This book presents a new theory of consumer demand for health insurance. It holds that people purchase insurance to obtain additional "income" when they become ill.

Care Without Coverage

Care Without Coverage
Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 213
Release: 2002-06-20
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309083435

Many Americans believe that people who lack health insurance somehow get the care they really need. Care Without Coverage examines the real consequences for adults who lack health insurance. The study presents findings in the areas of prevention and screening, cancer, chronic illness, hospital-based care, and general health status. The committee looked at the consequences of being uninsured for people suffering from cancer, diabetes, HIV infection and AIDS, heart and kidney disease, mental illness, traumatic injuries, and heart attacks. It focused on the roughly 30 million-one in seven-working-age Americans without health insurance. This group does not include the population over 65 that is covered by Medicare or the nearly 10 million children who are uninsured in this country. The main findings of the report are that working-age Americans without health insurance are more likely to receive too little medical care and receive it too late; be sicker and die sooner; and receive poorer care when they are in the hospital, even for acute situations like a motor vehicle crash.

Moral Hazard Effects in Health Insurance

Moral Hazard Effects in Health Insurance
Author: Olesya Kazantseva
Publisher:
Total Pages: 20
Release: 2014-07-21
Genre:
ISBN: 9783656700401

Seminar paper from the year 2014 in the subject Business economics - Economic Policy, grade: 1,3, University of Kassel, language: English, abstract: Within the discussion about the increasing expenditures in health insurance, the overutilization of medical care is often attributed to the existence of a moral hazard problem. Since moral hazard has a great impact on health insurance policies, there is a growing interest in the economic literature to identify and to measure its effects. Although the problem of overconsumption of medical care does not mean moral hazard per se, the determination of the latter may reduce its scope and help to mitigate the problem of overutilization. The main objective of this paper is an empirical evidence of the moral hazard phenomenon. By analysing the economic literature on moral hazard in health insurance this paper seeks for examples of its empirical evidence, whereby the emphasis lies on distinguishing between the demand-oriented (especially ex-post) and the supply-oriented (external) moral hazard.

Impact of Health Insurance in Low- and Middle-income Countries

Impact of Health Insurance in Low- and Middle-income Countries
Author: Maria-Luisa Escobar
Publisher: Brookings Institution Press
Total Pages: 239
Release: 2010
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0815705468

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.

Handbook of Health Economics

Handbook of Health Economics
Author: Mark V. Pauly
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 1149
Release: 2012-01-05
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0444535926

"As a relatively new subdiscipline of economics, health economics has made many contributions to areas of the main discipline, such as insurance economics. This volume provides a survey of the burgeoning literature on the subject of health economics." {source : site de l'éditeur].

Scaling Up Affordable Health Insurance

Scaling Up Affordable Health Insurance
Author: Alexander S. Preker
Publisher: World Bank Publications
Total Pages: 894
Release: 2013-05-31
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0821385798

This book presents an in-depth review on the role of health care financing in improving access for low-income populations to needed care, protecting them from the impoverishing effects of illness, and addressing the important issues of social exclusion in government financed programs.

For-Profit Enterprise in Health Care

For-Profit Enterprise in Health Care
Author: Institute of Medicine
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 580
Release: 1986-01-01
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 0309036437

"[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.

Lives at Risk

Lives at Risk
Author: John C. Goodman
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2004
Genre: Health care reform
ISBN: 9780742541528

Lives at Risk identifies 20 myths about health care as delivered in countries that have national health insurance. These myths have gained the status of fact in both the United States and abroad, even though the evidence shows a far different reality. The authors also explore the political and economic climate of the health care system and offer alternatives to the current health care public policies.