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Medical Insurance

Demand for insurance (including long-term care, supple- mentary insurance); supply of insurance services; moral hazard, its control and trade-offs with risk-pooling; adverse selection and cream skimming; tax-financed health care sys- tems; tax policy, exemptions, personal subsidies and health care financing; private and public systems of health insur- ance; welfare effects of ‘excess’ insurance and the trade-off
with internalizing externalities; insurance effects on health care providers; issues in coverage: services covered, individual eligibility.

Slide rule

“Doing the math” on the distribution of healthcare expenditures: a Pareto-like distribution is inevitable

Yesterday I explored one of the major challenges to affordable, universal health insurance, namely the high cost of providing care to the sickest patients. The extreme distribution of healthcare costs means that “Targeting the highest spenders represents the greatest opportunity… Read More »“Doing the math” on the distribution of healthcare expenditures: a Pareto-like distribution is inevitable

Stanchions and velvet ropes

Sharing the burden of healthcare: providing care to our sickest patients

One of the major challenges to affordable, universal health insurance is the high cost of providing care to the sickest patients. According to Roy Vaughn, senior vice president at BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, “just 5 percent of the company’s marketplace… Read More »Sharing the burden of healthcare: providing care to our sickest patients

Recommended reading for Steven Levitt

Steven Levitt and his trusty Freakonomics sidekick were invited by David Cameron to advise on health policy, as they recount in their latest book. Apparently the PM walked out on them. Levitt has kindly given us some more details on his proposal for British healthcare. It consisted of… Read More »Recommended reading for Steven Levitt