Publications

Recent Journal Articles on Health Economics

Growth of Consumer-Directed Health Plans to One-Half of All Employer-Sponsored Insurance Could Save $57 Billion Annually — 2012

Enrollment is increasing in consumer-directed health insurance plans, which feature high deductibles and a personal health care savings account.

An Analysis of Whether Higher Health Care Spending in the United States Versus Europe Is 'Worth It' in the Case of Cancer — 2012

The higher-cost US system of cancer care delivery may be worth it, although further research is required to determine what specific tools or treatments are driving improved cancer survival in the United States.

Consumers' and Providers' Responses to Public Cost Reports, and How to Raise the Likelihood of Achieving Desired Results — 2012

Public reporting of health care costs is intended to motivate consumers to choose lower cost providers, and motivate providers to lower costs to retain market share. Measures should be chosen based on which pathway policymakers intend to influence.

Empirical Evidence for Decreasing Returns to Scale in a Health Capital Model — 2012

Estimates a health investment equation, derived from a health capital model with particular emphasis on whether the health production function has constant returns to scale, or decreasing returns to scale.

The Effect of the Affordable Care Act on Enrollment and Premiums, With and Without the Individual Mandate — 2012

This analysis used a RAND microsimulation model to predict the effects of a possible Supreme Court decision invalidating the individual mandate provision in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and keeping the rest of the law intact.

How Would Eliminating the Individual Mandate Affect Health Coverage and Premium Costs? — 2012

An analysis of the effects of implementing the Affordable Care Act without an individual mandate found that over 12 million people who would have otherwise signed up for coverage will be uninsured and premium prices will increase by 2.4 percent.

Take-up of Public Insurance and Crowd-Out of Private Insurance Under Recent CHIP Expansions to Higher Income Children — 2012

The CHIP expansions to children in higher income families were associated with limited uptake of public coverage.

Improving Value for Money in Funding HIV Services in Developing Countries — 2011

This brief summarizes options for improving value for money in HIV funding by using a case study that focuses on the two largest funders, the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and the Global Fund, and antiretroviral therapy.

The PROMETHEUS Bundled Payment Experiment: Slow Start Shows Problems in Implementing New Payment Models — 2011

This project evaluated PROMETHEUS, a pilot project for a bundled payment alternative to fee for service. The pilot faced implementation challenges. Three years into the project, none of the pilot sites had executed contracts or made any bundled payments.

International Comparisons in Health Economics: Evidence from Aging Studies — 2011

Provides an overview of the growing literature that uses micro-level data from multiple countries to investigate health outcomes, and their link to socioeconomic factors, at older ages.