A vast body of empirical evidence has accumulated demonstrating that incentives affect health care choices made by both consumers and suppliers of health care services. Decisions in health care are affected by many types of incentives, such as the rate of return pharmaceutical manufacturers expect on their investments in research and development, or disincentives, such as increases in the copayments patients must make when they visit physicians or are admitted to hospitals.
In this volume, leading scholars in health economics review these new and important results and describe their own recent research assessing the role of incentives in health care markets and decisions people make that affect their personal health. The contexts include demand decisions--choices made by individuals about health care services they consume and the health insurance policies they purchase--and supply decisions made by medical students, practicing physicians, hospitals, and pharmaceutical manufacturers.
Researchers and students of health economics and policy makers will find this book a valuable resource, both for learning economic concepts, particularly as they apply to health care, and for reading up-to-date summaries of the empirical evidence. General readers will find the book's chapters accessible, interesting, and useful for gaining an understanding of the likely effects of alternative health care policies.
Table of Contents
Preface vii
Acknowledgments xi
Contributors xiii
Introduction
Frank A. Sloan and Hirschel Kasper
1
2 To Find the Answer, One Must Know the Question
Health Economics and Public Policy
Henry J. Aaron 21
3 Health Capital
Theory and Empirical Evidence
Assisted by Donna B. Gilleskie 51
4 What We Know and Don't Know about the Effects of Cost Sharing on the Demand for Medical Care
—and So What?
Joseph P. Newhouse and Anna D. Sinaiko 85
5 Adverse Selection and Moral Hazard
Implications for Health Insurance Markets
Mark V. Pauly 103
6 Direct-to-Consumer Advertising in Health Care
An Overview of Economic Issues
Ernst R. Berndt and Julie M. Donohue 131
7 Reefer Madness, Frank the Tank, or Pretty Woman
To What Extent Do Addictive Behaviors Respond to Incentives?
John Cawley 163
8 Medical Career Choices and Rates of Return
Sean Nicholson 195
9 The Effects of Incentives on Pharmaceutical Innovation
Frank A. Sloan and Chee-Ruey Hsieh 227
10 Physician Fees and Behavior
Implications for Structuring a Fee Schedule
Thomas G. McGuire 263
11 Physician Pay for Performance
Alternative Perspectives
Brian R. Golden and Frank A. Sloan 289
12 Competition, Information Provision, and Hospital Quality
Gautam Gowrisankaran 319
13 Summing Up
Frank A. Sloan and Hirschel Kasper 353
References 371
Index 407 |
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